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For Immediate Release
February, 12 2013, 10:21am EDT
Contact:
Katherine Paul, 207.653.3090, katherine@organicconsumers.org
Victory for Fair Trade and Food Workers' Rights
Under Pressure from Organic Consumers, Food Co-ops and Food Activists, UNFI Settles Strike with Washington State Workers
FINLAND, Minn.
United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI), the nation's largest wholesale distributor of organic, natural and specialty foods, will reinstate striking workers who had been permanently replaced at its Auburn, Wash., distribution warehouse, under an agreement reached Feb. 7 with members of Teamsters Local 117. According toSustainable Food News, UNFI agreed to a contract that calls for a 17.75-percent wage increase over five years.
"This is a victory for unions, for food workers everywhere, and for domestic fair trade," said Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). "We simply cannot and will not allow labor exploitation and union-busing practices in the $35 billion organic sector. We're proud of the organic consumers who responded to our boycott of UNFI's private-label brands during the strike, and of the Washington State food co-ops who supported the strike and threatened to find alternative distributors unless UNFI agreed to treat workers fairly. We hope this will demonstrate to the Teamsters and other unions that U.S organic consumers are passionate about justice, as well as health and sustainability, and inspire the tens of thousands of non-union workers for industry giants such as UNFI, WFM and Trader Joe's to organize themselves into trade unions for collective bargaining."
According to a spokesperson for Teamsters Local 117, the campaign against UNFI, which included the boycott, 24-hour a day picket lines around the UNFI warehouse in Auburn, Wash., leafleting outside Whole Foods Market (UNFI's biggest customer) retail stores, backlash from area food co-ops and bad press, including a widely-circulated article by Cummins and Dave Murphy, founder of FoodDemocracyNOW!, exposing the fact that UNFI was under investigation for 45 violations of federal labor law, struck fear in the hearts of UNFI management and brought them to the bargaining table.
The bitter strike began Dec. 10, seven months after the Teamsters contract had expired. UNFI promptly and permanently replaced 72 of the 168 workers and drivers who walked off the job.
A number of food co-ops, including Seattle-based PCC Natural Markets (PCC), the nation's largest consumer-owned retail grocer, and Central Food Co-op, also in Seattle, threatened to pull their business if UNFI didn't return to the bargaining table. Olympia Food Co-op, in a show of solidarity with workers, suspended business with UNFI for one week, which cost the multi-billion company an estimated $100,000.
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots 501(c)3 nonprofit public interest organization, and the only organization in the U.S. focused exclusively on promoting the views and interests of the nation's estimated 50 million consumers of organically and socially responsibly produced food and other products. OCA educates and advocates on behalf of organic consumers, engages consumers in marketplace pressure campaigns, and works to advance sound food and farming policy through grassroots lobbying. We address crucial issues around food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability, including pesticide use, and other food- and agriculture-related topics.
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Israel Agrees to Cease-Fire With Lebanon's Hezbollah—But What About Gaza?
"It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region," said one group.
Nov 26, 2024
Peace advocates on Tuesday cautiously celebrated Israel agreeing to a cease-fire with the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah while also stressing the need for an immediate end to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Despite concerns about whether the truce will actually happen, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a U.S.-based Quaker group, welcomed the plans for it and called on "all parties to ensure this agreement is swiftly enacted."
"The time for peace is now—not just in Lebanon, but in Gaza and across the region," FCNL declared on social media. "We urge U.S. officials to ensure this agreement brings an immediate end to the Israeli government's devastating and indiscriminate bombing and attacks against Lebanese civilians, which have been fueled by U.S. weapons."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that the National Security Cabinet approved the cease-fire in Lebanon with a 10-1 vote—only far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir voted no. The office added that "Israel appreciates the U.S. contribution to the process, and reserves the right to act against any threat to its security."
Netanyahu said in a speech to Israelis that "the length of the cease-fire depends on what happens in Lebanon. With the United States' full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack."
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden said that he worked with French President Emmanuel Macron to negotiate the cease-fire, which is set to begin at 4:00 am local time on Wednesday. The United States has spent at least tens of billions on Israeli military operations and related U.S. operations in the region since the Gaza-based Palestinian group Hamas led the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
"As Biden spoke tonight, Israel was raining U.S. bombs down on Lebanon and Gaza," notedDrop Site journalist Jeremy Scahill.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday thanked France and the United States for negotiating the truce, which he said is "a fundamental step towards establishing calm and stability in Lebanon" and "helps to establish regional stability." He also reiterated his government's intention to "strengthen the army's presence in the south."
Cross-border battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah over the past nearly 14 months have displaced tens of thousands of people in Israel and over 1 million in Lebanon. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Tuesday that Israel's assault—which has intensified since September—has killed at least 3,823 people and injured another 15,859.
In Gaza, the death toll is at least 44,249, with another 104,746 wounded, according to local officials. Israeli forces have also decimated civilian infrastructure and displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million residents, who are struggling to access necessities, due to limits on aid. Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court last week issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader.
"It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region," said FCNL. "More violence and suffering in Gaza will not make Israel, the U.S., or anyone safer or more secure. It must end now. We reiterate our calls for our government to use all U.S. leverage to bring about a full regional ceasefire to end the horrific suffering of Palestinians, protect all civilians, return all hostages home, de-escalate regional tensions, and begin the long road toward healing."
"That must include prohibiting more offensive weapons shipments and U.S. military involvement, which would send a message of impunity to the Israeli [government] in the face of repeated and grave violations of U.S. and international law in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, and beyond," the group added—just days after a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate rejected a trio of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have halted some arms sales to Israel.
Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the U.S.-based Center for International Policy, responded similarly to the development, saying in a statement that "we welcome news of a cease-fire agreement in Lebanon and hope that it can be implemented and sustained to prevent further harm to civilians who have been under threat of attack or suffered other great loss during the fighting."
"This agreement nonetheless comes too late. While Israel has the right to legitimate self-defense against Hezbollah, the Netanyahu government's deliberate escalation of the conflict in September resulted in disproportionate harm to civilians, hundreds of whom have been wounded or killed, with hundreds of thousands more displaced," Okail said. "Mixed messages and prevaricating by the Biden administration on its position on Israel's escalation and the need for a cease-fire [have] further prolonged the fighting and exacerbated the death and destruction it has brought."
"The U.S. and its partners must ensure that the terms of this agreement are fully honored so that civilians on both sides of the border can safely return to and rebuild their communities," she added. "What remains of the utmost urgency, however, is also ending the war in Gaza, where the U.S. arming of the Netanyahu government's campaign of displacement, starvation, slaughter and—per the repeated vows of senior Israeli officials—settlement continues in violation of American and international law."
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Democrats Call On Biden to Limit Marijuana Prosecutions Before End of Term
"Rescheduling marijuana and the prior round of pardons must not be the end of this administration's historic work," wrote the lawmakers.
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Democratic lawmakers on Monday urged U.S. President Joe Biden to ensure that his administration's "historic work... to undo the damage of federal marijuana policy" would not end with the steps already taken over the past three years, calling on the president to "deprioritize" marijuana prosecutions before his term ends in January.
Led by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 14 members of the Democratic caucus applauded Biden for issuing a directive earlier this year that led health regulators to recommend marijuana be classified as a Schedule III substance under the Controlled Substances Act. For decades it has been classified as a Schedule I drug, considered to have no medical use and high potential for abuse.
The lawmakers urged the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) "to complete that process as soon as possible," but stressed that doing so would "not end federal criminalization, resolve its harms, or meaningfully address the gap between federal and state cannabis policy. Possession and use of recreational marijuana—and much state-legal medical marijuana—will continue to be a violation of federal law."
What would help to end criminalization at the federal level, said the lawmakers, is "a memorandum that would deprioritize seizing marijuana and prosecuting individuals and businesses for state-legal marijuana activity."
The DEA persists in carrying out major raids and seizures of marijuana plants and businesses, wrote the lawmakers—including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). They pointed to raids carried out this year in New Mexico in which state police destroyed tens of thousands of pounds of "state-legal" marijuana plants.
"The Biden administration has the opportunity to further reduce the harms of marijuana's criminalization before the end of this administration."
"We urge you to issue a memorandum that would deprioritize seizing marijuana and prosecuting individuals and businesses for state-legal marijuana activity," reads the letter. "Today, federal sentences for marijuana possession are rare, with only 13 individuals sentenced for simple marijuana possession in 2023, compared to over 2,000 in 2015. Still, the threat of a federal conviction persists."
A memorandum from the Biden administration should also direct federal law enforcement to "deprioritize prosecutions of any future marijuana offenses that have been the basis of prior federal pardons, and deprioritize prosecutions of personal cannabis activities and cannabis activities that comply with state or tribal law," the lawmakers wrote.
Biden has been applauded for issuing pardons and commutations for people convicted of marijuana-related offenses, but the lawmakers noted that at least 3,000 people remain in federal prisons for such convictions.
"The Biden administration has the opportunity to further reduce the harms of marijuana's criminalization before the end of this administration by issuing another round of clemency and an updated memorandum on prosecutorial discretion for marijuana offenses," said the lawmakers.
President-elect Donald Trump's nominations for top government positions indicate potential mixed stances on marijuana policy in the incoming administration. His attorney general nominee, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, opposed an amendment to legalize medical marijuana in the state, and Food and Drug Administration commissioner nominee Marty Makary has called marijuana a "gateway drug."
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump has nominated to lead the Health and Human Services Department, has expressed support for medical marijuana legalization.
The lawmakers on Monday urged Biden not to leave major decision-making on cannabis policy up to Trump.
"Rescheduling marijuana and the prior round of pardons must not be the end of this administration's historic work to use its executive authority to undo the damage of federal marijuana policy," they wrote. "As we continue to work toward legislation to end the federal criminalization of marijuana and to regulate it responsibly and equitably, we urge prompt administrative action to tackle the harms of criminalization—particularly for the benefit of communities most harmed by the War on Drugs."
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Mexico's Leftist President Rips Trump Tariff Threat
"If even a small percentage of what the United States allocates to war were instead dedicated to building peace and fostering development, it would address the underlying causes of human mobility," wrote Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday sharply criticized U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose a 25% tariff on all imported goods from Canada and Mexico, calling the proposal a potentially disastrous distraction from meaningful solutions to drug trafficking and mass migration.
"Migration and drug consumption in the United States cannot be addressed through threats or tariffs," Sheinbaum, a member of Mexico's leftist Morena party, wrote in a letter to Trump. "What is needed is cooperation and mutual understanding to tackle these significant challenges."
Sheinbaum warned that if Trump follows through with his threat, "there will be a response in kind, until we put at risk our shared enterprises," echoing economists' concerns that such sweeping tariffs could result in higher prices for consumers, job losses, and a damaging trade war. Companies in the U.S. are already signaling that they would use tariffs on imports as a justification to raise consumer prices.
"Among Mexico's main exporters to the United States are General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford Motor Company, which arrived in Mexico 80 years ago," Sheinbaum wrote. "Why impose a tariff that would jeopardize them? Such a measure would be unacceptable and would lead to inflation and job losses in both the United States and Mexico."
"Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours."
Sheinbaum's letter to Trump was made public hours after the U.S. president-elect took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to fearmonger about a supposedly "unstoppable" migrant "caravan coming from Mexico."
Trump pledged to "sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States" and said such tariffs would remain in place until Mexico and Canada—the nation's largest trading partners—halt the flow of migrants and drugs, particularly fentanyl, into the U.S.
"Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem," Trump wrote. "We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!"
In her response, Sheinbaum wrote that Trump "may not be aware" that Mexico "has developed a comprehensive policy to assist migrants from different parts of the world who cross our territory en route to the southern border of the United States." Sheinbaum noted that the policy helped produce a major decline in migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border over the past year.
"For these reasons, migrant caravans no longer arrive at the border," the Mexican president wrote. "Even so, it is clear that we must work together to create a new labor mobility model that is necessary for your country, as well as address the root causes that compel families to leave their homes out of necessity."
"If even a small percentage of what the United States allocates to war were instead dedicated to building peace and fostering development, it would address the underlying causes of human mobility," she added.
Sheinbaum went on to write that Mexico has "consistently expressed its willingness" to help stop fentanyl and weapons from entering the United States through its southern border.
"You must also be aware of the illegal trafficking of firearms into my country from the United States," she wrote. "Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs. Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a far more vague response to Trump's tariff threat, telling reporters that he had a "good conversation" with the U.S. president-elect following his Truth Social post.
"This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that's what we'll do," Trudeau said.
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