The Union Plan to Disrupt the Retail Supply Chain

by | Apr 19, 2012 | Labor Relations Ink

Labor Notes Jane Slaughter writes this month about a coordinated effort by unions to lay the groundwork for future disruptions of the retail supply chain at the level of temporary employees and day laborers in port area distribution centers.  Three campaigns have been working for years towards bottlenecking the country’s retail distribution through the country’s three largest ports:  Warehouse Workers United, a Change to Win campaign, has been organizing temporary workers in Southern California’s Inland Empire through community and immigrant rights groups for over three years; for eleven years a New Jersey workers center called New Labor has been organizing temps along the I-95 corridor; and outside Chicago, the Warehouse Workers for Justice, a United Electrical Workers affiliate, is recruiting temp workers and day laborers door-to-door in neighborhoods closest to major Midwest distribution centers. According to Slaughter, the strategy for unions going forward is to attack a major retailer on all flanks, with supply chain disruption from below coordinated with high-visibility street level actions by front organizations and retail worker “non-unions” like OUR Wal-mart.  The least plausible piece of the union plan:  the hope that unionized workers already in the supply chain, like drivers, longshoremen and dockworkers, will begin demanding recognition for warehouse worker units as part of their own contract talks. At one Southern California distribution center, Warehouse Workers United used an online petition to gather 3000 signatures and organized a delegation that approached management.  WWU is now taking credit for restoring the job of a fired WWU activist, as well as new forklifts, safety mirrors in the aisles, a deep cleaning of the warehouse, and “water to drink.”  The reinstated worker activist said, “They know we’re involved with Warehouse Workers United so they don’t mess with us.” Staff members from all three campaigns have met to exchange organizing techniques and coordinate strategies.  Already all three campaigns have demonstrated they can compel a majority of marginally employed temporaries and day workers to call off or not report for work.

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