City of Philadelphia - File #: 040161

• File #: 040161
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 2/26/2004
• In control: CITY COUNCIL
• Final action: 2/26/2004
• Title: Calling upon Albertson's, the owner of Acme Markets, to settle the more than 100 day old lockout of its workers in Southern California in a way that maintains their hard-won health benefits, and further urging Albertson's, and its CEO Larry Johnston, to not try these benefit-destroying tactics in Philadelphia.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Cohen, Councilmember Mariano, Council President Verna, Councilmember Ramos, Councilmember Goode, Councilmember Tasco, Councilmember Kenney, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember DiCicco, Councilmember Miller, Councilmember Clarke, Councilmember Reynolds Brown

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
2/26/2004	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED
2/26/2004	0	CITY COUNCIL	READ
2/26/2004	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced	Pass

Title
Calling upon Albertson's, the owner of Acme Markets, to settle the more than 100 day old lockout of its workers in Southern California in a way that maintains their hard-won health benefits, and further urging Albertson's, and its CEO Larry Johnston, to not try these benefit-destroying tactics in Philadelphia.
Body
WHEREAS, More than 60,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union are either on strike or locked out of almost 900 stores, stretching from central California to the Mexican border, constituting the longest major strike in the history of the retail food industry; and

WHEREAS, On October 12, 2003, Albertson's locked out the UFCW, after an unprecedented number of its workers, over 95 per cent, voted to fight their employers' demands to take away health benefits; and

WHEREAS, Albertson's - the owner of Acme Markets, the Philadelphia region's largest grocery chain - and its CEO Larry Johnston, have threatened to cut workers health care benefits although Albertson's profits rose 100 per cent to 2.8 billion dollars; and

WHEREAS, Albertson's proposal would effectively eliminate affordable health benefits in the future, by immediately cutting the benefits of new hires and inadequately funding benefits for existing employees, leading to either massive cuts or unbearable co-pays; and

WHEREAS, The voters of the city of Philadelphia overwhelmingly passed a resolution affirming that affordable health care is a basic right of all Americans; and

WHEREAS, Albertson's/Acme has continually misled its customers about the causes of this massive labor dispute, a dispute that is about the future of affordable health care for over 60,000 unionized workers and their families; and

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, To call upon Albertson's, the owner of Acme Markets, to settle the more than 100 day old lockout of its workers in Southern California in a...