Prayers pit Safeway vs. union
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
By Jessica Guynn
Dozens of workers stopped bagging groceries and stocking shelves for several hours to attend Good Friday services held by clergy with strong ties to organized labor despite a warning from Safeway Inc. that the supermarket chain would hold their unions responsible for economic damages.
In a sharply worded letter to Bay Area grocery union leaders, Safeway accused the unions of using religion to play politics. The supermarket claims the interfaith services were thinly disguised labor rallies that did not meet the "scope and spirit" of a contract provision which allows grocery workers to take off three hours with pay on Good Friday for religious worship.
"It was not intended to provide a free day off as long as prayer was involved or to disrupt store operations," wrote Safeway's group vice president for labor relations Rich Cox, objecting to union representatives passing out flyers and encouraging workers to attend the services, which took place in seven cities from San Rafael to Santa Cruz on Friday…
… "Safeway is better served selling groceries than monitoring religious services," said UC Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken. "At the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, religious services were heavily focused on issues of social justice. What's the next logical step, to begin evaluating sermons?"
Source: UC Berkeley in the News
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