Rite Aid Workers Fight for a Union

Over 600 workers at a Rite Aid distribution center in Lancaster, California have been fighting for their basic rights as workers. The company has delayed contract negotiations even though the workers voted for union representation a year ago.

Workers came to New York City this past Thursday to rally outside Rite Aid’s annual shareholders meeting. Workers and supporters are calling on the company to stop stalling and collectively bargain with the workers. Despite a vicious anti-union campaign led by Rite Aid and its paid union-busting consultants, workers voted last year to join International Longshore Workers Local 26.

Angel Warner, a mother of two who has been working at the Lancaster distribution center for the past ten years, is one of the workers who came to New York to speak out.

In an interview with Democracy Now, Warner said:

“Well, we started this over three years ago, and it took us two years just to even get to the vote to be able to be represented. And now it’s been over a year that we’ve been at the bargaining table. And it’s like the company is dragging their feet. They don’t want to bargain. They say they’re bargaining in good faith. And the most significant thing that’s been agreed on is where we’re going to hang our bulletin board.”

The disgracefully slow-moving unionization process at Rite Aid is emblematic of the weakness of U.S. labor law, which allows companies to break union campaigns by continuously stalling and thus shirking their legal obligations to negotiate with the workers.