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nion members, retirees and community supporters in three cities participated in a national day of action on Oct. 6th in solidarity with Rite Aid workers fighting for a contract in Lancaster, CA. The activists targeted three of Rite Aid’s Board members in in Bellingham, WA, Los Angeles, CA and New York City. The solidarity actions were inspired by demonstrations by Rite Aid workers in Lancaster, where a group of workers marched from the lunch room outside of management’s offices.
The demonstrations focused attention on a proposed health insurance scam that would overcharge employees who work for the nation’s third-largest drugstore chain. They blew whistles and carried signs reading “Stop the Health Care Rip off at Rite Aid.” Rite Aid’s controversial proposal would overcharge employees for their share of health insurance by up to 28 times above the actual cost. Rite Aid first proposed the overcharge scheme last month to a group of 500 employees at the company’s southwest distribution center in Lancaster, CA. The plan could affect thousands of Rite Aid employees nationwide if it goes forward.
“We’ve been negotiating now for two-and-a-half years. It is starting to get down to the crucial part of the contract,” said Ed Calleros, Vice President of ILWU Local 26. “Kaiser increased their cost 1.5 percent yet they are trying to give their employees a 37 percent increase. That’s just ridiculous. We are going to continue to stick together and fight this.” Calleros and other members of Local 26 joined members of ILWU Locals 13A, 56 and the IBU along with United Students Against Sweatshops at the demonstration in Los Angeles at the offices of Rite Aid Board member Jonathan Sokoloff.
Rite Aid’s controversial proposal would overcharge employees for their share of health insurance by up to 28 times above the actual cost. Rite Aid first proposed the overcharge scheme last month to a group of 500 employees at the company’s southwest distribution center in Lancaster, CA. The plan could affect thousands of Rite Aid employees nationwide if it goes forward.
ILWU Locals 7, 19, 25, and 32, pensioners from Bellingham and Seattle,folks from UFCW Local 21 and Jobs With Justice members carried out a similar action in Bellingham, WA outside the offices of Rite Aid Board member James Donald. The New York action attended by members of the UFCW Local 1776 and SEIU Local 1199 was held outside the posh Metropolitan Club where Board member Philip Satre was to be honored by other executives. Protestors assembled outside the club and greeted dinner guests with information detailing Satre’s dismal performance as a Lead Director of Rite Aid’s Board of Directors. All three Board members were asked to stop the health insurance scam and take action to get Rite Aid “back on the right track.”
At all three actions, activists sought to deliver a letters written by workers at the Lancaster distribution center in California where Rite Aid first proposed the health insurance scam. Included with the employees’ letter was an “Investor Alert,” detailing Rite Aid’s past mismanagement and underperformance. The report called on management to change its failed labor relations approach and urged Rite Aid to work with employees and solve problems together in a more constructive manner. It was written by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s Research Department.