5.24.2007 - 02:59pm ET

(CSRwire) SANTA ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2007--Community activists, civic leaders and local clergy will join hundreds of retail grocery employees outside the Albertsons store at 2840 South Bristol in Santa Ana Friday, May 25 from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm for a rally aimed at building support for the workers in their ongoing struggle to secure a fair collective bargaining agreement from their employers.

The affair will be the first rally of its kind since May 13 when the United Food and Commercial Workers Union announced its intention to step up the pressure on the three retail grocery chains to negotiate a fair contract.

Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons have been in negotiations with the union since February and allowed the workers' previous three-year agreement to expire without a successor in place.

"This is also a way that union members up and down the county can show grocery workers that they are not alone," said Teferi Gebre of the Orange County Central Labor Council. "We are here to show common cause with them and we want them to know it."

Attendees will continue their ongoing campaign to collect signatures on petitions declaring support for the workers' cause. The drive has so far collected more than 20,000 signatures from store patrons who promise to shop elsewhere if the chains don't act to settle the dispute.

Organizers of the event plan to feature prominent speakers from all sectors of the community in an effort to show the workers that their fight is gaining support.

Among the issues to be highlighted will be the fact that grocery workers have not had a raise in six years and since the last contract was signed in 2004, 20,000 children of grocery workers have no access to health insurance.

The UFCW is the largest private sector union in the States with 1.2 million members. It is also the largest in Orange County, with 23,000 members.



Copyright Business Wire 2007

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