Debbie Fontaine

International Longshore and Warehouse Union  Rite Aid Distribution Center, Lancaster, Calif.

Debbie Fontaine

Debbie Fontaine worked at the Rite Aid Distribution Center in Lancaster, Calif., before being fired for exercising her freedom to form a union in August 2006.

Fontaine’s job is physically challenging. She operates forklifts and packs and moves boxes off to shipping. She has trouble keeping up, especially because the warehouse is often 85 degrees and humid with no air circulation. She explains her situation, "I’m 48 and I’m expected to do the work of 19 and 20 year olds. After a certain age, your body falls apart." Rite Aid requires their employees to work overtime with no advanced notice. If someone is unable to work because of prior commitments, including taking their children to school, they can be written up.

Fontaine and her co-workers decided to form a union for better working conditions and job security. Management went to great lengths to intimidate Fontaine and her co-workers. They held mandatory meetings for all employees and called the union supporters liars. Fontaine says, "It doesn’t always sound like much until you have to be there and live it." Management also interrogated workers about their support of the union. Fontaine’s boss called her into his office to scream at her while pounding his fists on his desk and calling her names. As an active union supporter, Fontaine knew she was being targeted by management. In August 2006, Fontaine was fired. Fontaine describes managements tactics: "We ’re people, we have families, and they just don’t care. They’re messing with people’s lives and livelihoods."

Fontaine knows that the tactics used by management intimidate her co-workers. She says, "A lot of employees are afraid that if Rite Aid fired me, they will fire everyone who supports the union."

The labor board issued a complaint against Rite Aid at the end of May 2007. The complaint alleges that there is reasonable cause to believe the company fired Fontaine because she supported the union and that the company intimidated workers by interrogating them about their union activities, spying on union supporters, bribing them, disciplining workers in retaliation for their union support, prohibiting people from speaking about the union and threatening loss of pay and loss of work if they vote for the union. And what is the punishment for the illegal actions of the company to intimidate the workers from forming a union?

A paper notice is posted on a bulletin board and the company denies it ever broke any law and promises not break any law in the future.