From the Globe Business Desk
Rank and file members of the largest grocery workers union in California are in the process of voting to affiliate with Fresno’s UCFW Local 1288.
But last week, some union members held news conferences in Sacramento and Vallejo to reveal details of an official corruption complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Labor against union leadership.
Members for a Democratic Union (MDU) said UFCW Local 588 union members said they are concerned about “major and rampant corruption, and misuse of union resources.”
The MDU is urging a “no” vote against merging with the 5,000-member, Fresno-based UCFW Local 1288, claiming the merger is aimed to delay a scheduled June election in the union.
Officials for the union were not available for comment.
Local 588 already represents 23,000 workers in 38 counties, from the Oregon border to Sacramento, the Bay Area and Modesto.
At the news briefings Friday, union members outlined their complaint, including charges that the Local 588 leadership and union officials have shut out rank and file grocery workers by manipulating holes in the labor law to cancel elections, and that they used union resources to manipulate elections and intimidate members to keep them from running for office.
A scheduled election – the first since 2001– is set for June. But Local 588 officials are attempting to delay it until December 2008, claim MDU union members.
“The Fresno vote is not a merger. It is a hostile take-over and may result in more members but less democracy,” said Doug Slaydon, a member of UCFWand a potential candidate to replace the current president. Slaydon said a grassroots “rank and file” campaign to defeat the merger and hold regular elections is underway.
The union has already been the focus of media reports outlining the lavish pay and other perks received by former president Jack Loveall and his staff, many of whom are members of his family. Loveall, who recently resigned, was paid more the $500,000 a year, has a $28,000 country club membership paid for by the union, a private jet and a 1,100-square-foot office with a jacuzzi.
