Union Members Picket Rite Aid

About 15 union workers staged a noisy one-hour demonstration in front of today, picketing “in solidarity” with fellow union members who they say have not been treated fairly by the drugstore chain.

Members of Warehouse Union Local 6 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), and from United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 5, as well as representatives of the San Mateo Labor Council, all arrived at the Rite Aid carrying signs and chanting for company executives to meet the demands of warehouse workers in Lancaster, Calif. – the site of a million-square-foot regional distribution center, and where company and union representatives have been negotiating for three years.

The protest, held from 12 to 1 p.m. Monday, was mirrored by similar demonstrations around the country, union reps said.

“The issue here is the problem of health care getting less and less affordable,” explained ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees. He said that while rank-and-file workers were asked to “go on a diet,” executives were getting raises.

Ashley Flower, a spokesperson for Rite Aid, told Patch that “We are simply asking the union to pay their fair share of health care … just as we do to thousands of our associates across the country.”

She said the company and union have held 131 negotiating sessions already, with the help of a federal mediator.

“We have been negotiating with the ILWU and we will continue to do so in good faith,” she said.

At the San Mateo Rite Aid, Merrilees said the majority of people they encountered “were very sympathetic” to the union members. Picketers handed out fliers adorned with candy hearts reading “Rite Aid don’t break our hearts.”