Union Prevents WinCo Foods Expansion in Folsom; Third Picket Line Goes Up in Yuba City.

Business Editors

ROSEVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 2000

A multi-faceted informational campaign led by concerned citizens, including UFCW 588-Northern California, has persuaded WinCo Foods to withdraw plans to build a store in Folsom.

Activists intent on keeping WinCo out of the area say the company's business practices threaten working people in every community in which they operate.

"Our highest priority was to eliminate the threat of this anti-union, job-destroying company. Together we leafletted stores, picketed, staged rallies, went door-to-door and phoned neighbors to explain the dangers to the community of this threat. We succeeded in Folsom and we will continue until the WinCo threat is stopped," said Jacques Loveall, Director of Organizing for UFCW 588.

"Non-union stores pose a direct threat to the standards of the supermarket industry which have been won over the last 60 years. We cannot sit idly by and let those standards be ignored, with all that could mean negatively to the future prosperity of our communities," said Loveall.

"We are obligated to our members and to all working people to protect our Union market share in this area. These stores are non-union and threaten our efforts to maintain the wages, benefits, working conditions, and job security established by the UFCW 588-Northern California," said Loveall. On June 1, the Union put up a third picket line at WinCo's Yuba City location. The other two lines, in Antelope and Elk Grove, have met with excellent community support.

"Our ongoing boycott of WinCo has received support from residents all over the area. Once they understand the negative business practices used by this company, they applaud our efforts to rid them from our communities. We think executives are deeply concerned over the company's future in California," Loveall said.

UFCW 588 is the largest Union in Northern California with some 28,000 members, mainly Food and Meat Department workers in virtually all the major supermarkets. It also represents meat and poultry workers, pharmacists, drug clerks, and other professionals.

The Union is part of the UFCW International, the largest private-sector Union in the Western Hemisphere with 1.4 million members. The UFCW has some 110,000 members in California working in the over 90 percent of the supermarkets in the state, all of which have UFCW collective bargaining agreements. For further information, contact Jack L. Loveall, President, UFCW 588-Northern California, 916/786-0588, ext. 201.