Found this on http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/889744/posts
Posted on 04/10/2003 6:17:18 AM PDT by GailA
CEO of Fred's snubs Jackson
By Mark Watson watson@gomemphis.com April 10, 2003
For the second time in five days, Fred's Inc. chief executive officer Michael Hayes was unavailable to meet with Jesse Jackson.
Jackson was in Memphis Wednesday to attend a 10 a.m. meeting with Hayes at Fred's headquarters on Getwell Road.
Jackson, president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, is acting on behalf of Fred's warehouse workers who are trying to form a union.
He tried to meet with Hayes Friday, but Hayes was out of town then, too.
"I'll come back again, and again and again, to resolve this situation," Jackson later told about 50 people at the nearby office of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees office.
In a conference call at Fred's, Jackson set another meeting with Hayes, who was in Atlanta, for 2 p.m. April 16.
Fred's warehouse workers - 300 of the company's 9,000 employees - voted in May 2002 to join UNITE, a vote that the local National Labor Relations Board recom mended be ratified.
As Fred's appeals the recommendation, UNITE has launched an aggressive attack against the company charging racism, unfair firings and company harassment - charges that Hayes denies.
Meanwhile, union officials have asked Fred's management to meet with workers while the NLRB decision is pending.
"We are kind of cautious, with our hands tied, because the union (election) issue has not been ratified by the NLRB," said Tom Burkley, Fred's senior vice president for marketing. "We can't mediate or negotiate until those issues are settled."
Although a meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, Hayes was told that Jackson would not attend the meeting, so he decided not to attend, either.
Fred's officials said that although Jackson said he would not attend the meeting, he urged Hayes to meet with the Ecumenical Task Force of ministers.
Burkley said Fred's tried to inform Rev. L. LaSimba Gray, the task force's co-chairman, that Hayes would not be able to return to Memphis in time for Wednesday's meeting.
"We are dealing with the same old cup of soup," said Rev. John Brown, co-chairman of the Ecumenical Task Force.
The meeting glitch aside, Jackson said he urges Hayes to meet with workers despite the NLRB's pending decision.
"My appeal to him was, 'Let's get beyond recycling pain,' " he said. "My appeal to him was, 'Don't let the NLRB and anti-union lawyers stand between you and your workers.' "
Union officials have said the company is stalling while firing many workers who assist ed the organizing campaign.
Former Fred's receiving clerk Darryl Isom described his Nov. 16 termination. On his way out of work, he and several other people passed through a sensor that is designed to sound the alarm whenever someone leaves with a stolen product.
"It hadn't gone off the whole two years I had been there," said Isom, who has been active since the UNITE campaign started. "The security guard had us all to walk through the sensor one by one. I had gone through there and turned around and told the security guard the sensor needed to be fixed. The security guard made a big commotion about nothing. The supervisor told me to go home. He said that when I came back Monday, we will discuss the matter. When I came back, I found out that I was terminated, and they gave no reason why."
Burkley said he does not know Isom or anything about his situation, but he finds Isom's story "hard to believe."
"No one would be terminated without cause," Burkley said. "There would have to be a hearing with a supervisor."
Hayes has said his company has not fired anyone unfairly.
Jackson said UNITE is mobilizing ministers to visit Fred's stores and talk to their workers to research conditions.
"As long as it doesn't interfere with their business or the operation of the store," that would be allowed, Burkley said. But he noted that the union dispute does not cover employees in the stores, which number more than 8,500 people.
Despite an attempted boycott, Fred's outperforms most other retailers and consistently sets monthly sales records.
The Ecumenical Task Force vowed to remain focused on obtaining fair working conditions and wages for Fred's employees. "This is just the beginning. We will not give up," Brown said.
Jackson tried to strike a more diplomatic tone. "We don't need to draw a line in the sand. We need to draw a circle so that everybody can be included. Engaging in deadlines and threats would be counterproductive."
- Mark Watson: 529-5874
Perhaps things would improve if Reverend Jackson and Brown got out of the soup line.
The L. is for "Leftist."
I admit, I had no idea what Fred's was until I looked it up.
Make sure we don't go after the Teachers Union and their dumbing down of the Black kids.
Question: Could this company counter bring a charge of libel against this union? I don't see how they could substantiate the racism they charge.
There has to be a way for people to confront that charge instead of cowering from it.
Yes, it's a corporate campaign.
You manufacture a bunch of phony problems that the presence of a union will supposedly solve.
They do the same thing, like clockwork, as contract renegotiation time comes around – call OSHA with a bunch of bogus complaints, encourage a bunch of people to go out on fake job-related injuries, etc.
Then they can go to the media complaining about how the company doesn’t have any concern for the safety of their workers, that injuries are at an all time high… on and on. It’s just a technique to damage the reputation of a company and present them in a bad light so they can apply pressure on them to settle on their terms.
Meanwhile, the media and general public are often stupid enough to buy into it, so it usually works.
Found this on http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/889744/posts
I noticed that he didn't mention having consented to a body search, which presumably would have revealed that this innocent man had taken nothing, thereby leaving him with a legitimate complaint.
My guess?
He's a thief who on the verge of getting caught raised a biiiiiig hubbub in order to distract from his crime.
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