When you work hard and play by the rules, you should have a chance to move ahead. Not only is that central to the American Dream, it’s also central to the famous “I Have a Dream” speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on a hot August day 50 years ago. And while we have made great strides in our country and around the world since that day in 1963, the struggles for respect, good jobs and justice continue.
On August 28, local grocery store workers, their families, neighbors and customers will picket outside of 38 Safeway, QFC, Fred Meyer and Albertsons stores around Puget Sound, including 12 grocery stores in Seattle.
These union grocery store workers have been in contract negotiations since March, and the CEOs of the nation’s three biggest grocery chains — each of whom earn millions of dollars — are still proposing to cut pay and health care benefits for their employees.
We, the members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW 21), a union representing more than 43,000 grocery store, health care and retail workers, are pushing back against this tide to protect worker benefits. Along with our allies in UFCW 367 and Teamsters 38, we want to secure fair pay for hard work.
The struggles for racial equality and economic justice are still with us. But significant progress has been made since August 1963. Likewise, we made progress in 2010 when the CEOs of the big national grocery store chains came after our health care, our pension and our pay, and refused to give us paid sick days. They also tried to split our ranks. We stuck together and, in the toughest economy since the Great Depression,
94 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike.
We forced a final compromise that, while far from perfect, was something members felt proud of and passed overwhelmingly.
And because you can’t win everything at the negotiating table, we joined with thousands of others in Seattle and in 2011 won a new law for paid sick leave for all workers in the city.
History teaches us that by persistently standing together in the pursuit of equality, we can make things better. But success requires participation. Justice is not a spectator sport.
I remember when my dad and I journeyed from our small town in northern New Hampshire to Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1983, for the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington.
That experience still lives inside of me.
And now, 30 years later to the day, when the 50th anniversary of that historic march takes place on the other side of the nation, I will be in the street, taking action here in Seattle.
If you, your family and friends are lucky enough to go to D.C. for the march’s 50th anniversary, great.
But if you cannot, I hope that you will help make some local history. Come out and join my wife Aiko and our kids Isaiah and Naomi as we join thousands of others.
Come stand up to support the 30,000 grocery store workers here in the Puget Sound who are fighting for fair treatment and respect.
This August 28, I hope to see you out on the streets.