Subject: Fw: Please ... Help Grocery Workers and Their Families


Dear Working Families e-Activist:

More than 75,000 grocery workers will spend this holiday season on the picket line. These brave workers are holding the line for health care and good jobs in the face of stubborn employer greed. They're on strike or have been locked out by their employers, including Safeway-owned Vons, Kroger-owned Ralphs and Albertsons for more than nine weeks now.

That is a long time for these workers and their families to go without their regular paychecks or health care coverage and strike fund savings are running low. But these workers feel their struggle is essential to the well-being and future of their families. You can donate to a special strike fund right now by clicking on the link below or keep reading for more
information and actions.
https://secure.ga3.org/08/groceryworkerholiday/nS1z-eS119peU

Maria Lopez, a five-year Vons employee, had this to say about the strike: "I've been out there [on the picket line] for 40 hours a week because I'm fighting for my health benefits. There are a lot of moms on the line. We are afraid to lose our jobs with this strike but more afraid to lose our health benefits if the company gets its way. If one of my kids gets really sick and I couldn't afford the insurance, I wouldn't know what to do."

Here is what you can do to help Maria and tens of thousands of workers like her.

1. Please take just one minute today to help these workers by making a donation to the special fund supporting these workers, to help them with food and other essentials during this holiday season. All the funds go directly to strikers in need. You can
make a secure and easy online donation or get mailing information by taking one minute and clicking on the link below.
https://secure.ga3.org/08/groceryworkerholiday/nS1z-eS119peU

You could ask your friends and family to donate in lieu of a holiday gift or raise funds at holiday events for these workers.

2. Do not shop at any Safeway stores. From San Diego to Boston and from Seattle to Miami we're asking everybody to not shop at Safeway-owned stores, including Vons, Safeway, Pavilions, Carrs,
Dominick's, Randalls, Tom Thumb or Genuardi's.

For more than nine weeks these workers have been holding the line for affordable health care at work against the Safeway-led charge to destroy health benefits for workers and their families. These workers and their families urgently need your support.

The grocery chains are demanding the workers accept what amounts to a 75 percent cut in health coverage for new workers and a 50 percent cut for current employees. Like employers across America, they are trying to boost their profits at the expense
of workers and their families. If the grocery chains win, we'll all have a harder time holding on to health care benefits.

Usually we ask for your activism to win the goals we share. But today you can really help by making a donation at the link below.

Donate: https://secure.ga3.org/08/groceryworkerholiday/nS1z-eS119peU

Spread the word: http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/E1z-eS11v1BD/

More information: http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/mpz-eS11v1BJ//

Thanks for all you do.

In Solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network
Dec. 17, 2003