3.08.2007 - 07:47pm ET

(CSRwire) BUENA PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2007--UFCW Local
324:


WHAT: 10,000th Consumer signs petition supporting a fair contract for Grocery Workers, gets $100 gift certificate to Stater Bros market. The 10,000 signatures will then be presented to Albertsons management.

WHERE: Albertsons Market, 6931 La Palma Ave., Buena Park, CA

WHEN: Friday, March 9, 9:30 a.m.

VISUALS: 10,000th consumer signing petition, presentation of gift, presentation of huge stack of petitions to management, grocery workers gathering signatures in front of store


Only four days after the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the three largest grocery chains in Southern California signed an agreement extending their current contract by two weeks, petitioners are on track to collecting the 10,000th signature from Albertsons shoppers urging that company to sign a fair collective bargaining agreement with its employees.

The campaign to collect signatures began several weeks ago at select Albertsons stores throughout the region and is designed to remind the company that the customer service their employees provide is a main reason the stores have grown so profitable.

"The customers have always been our most powerful resource," said Greg Conger, president of UFCW Local 324 based in Buena Park. "More than anybody else, the shopping public knows how important grocery workers are in shaping their shopping experience and how important they are in making their stores as profitable as they have become."

"We encourage consumers to shop at all union stores, including Albertsons," he said. "The gift certificate is meant to highlight the fact that one major chain, Stater Bros. markets, has recognized the value of its employees by signing a fair contract. We're hopeful that, in the end, Albertsons will follow their lead."

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is the largest private-sector union in the United States, representing 1.2 million workers nationally, about 20,000 of them in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.


Copyright Business Wire 2007

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