For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, December 9, 2015, 1 pm, 2200 W. Division St., St. Cloud
Greater Minnesota Worker Center Holds Rally in Support of Makaida Alexander-Garrett, Super America Worker, face of SuperAmerica Workers’ Campaign
SuperAmerica workers in St. Cloud and the Twin Cities have been conducting surveys of workers and organizing for better work conditions and wages. Makaida Alexander has been the face and the voice of the St. Cloud based Greater Minnesota Worker Center supported SuperAmerica campaign for fair scheduling, wages, and health and safety. She stood in solidarity with CTUL janitor strikers, spoke out at rallies about workers’ conditions at SuperAmerica, and has spoken to the media.
Ever since her appearance in the news November 10th, her hours have been drastically cut. The week following her speaking out at an early morning rally at an SA store in Minneapolis, she was scheduled for ZERO hours.
Then she was forced to work the Thanksgiving Holiday overnight alone. She worked from 11pm-5am alone in the store with no break, a violation of labor laws. She was afraid and called for help but no one would come. This is of special concern since she is a woman and around the country convenience store workers have begun to speak out and protest the dangers to workers assigned lone shifts overnight
For the last week she has been scheduled only four hours, and she only has four hours this week also. She usually is scheduled for between 20-24 hours per week. It appears that SA is trying to bully her into quitting. Not ok.
Workers from SA are finally going to have a chance to meet on Decembr 16th with SA president and CEO Jack Helmick next week, but we also feel it’s important for her manager to know that what she is doing is not legal.
The Greater Minnesota Worker Center will sponsor a rally on Wednesday, December 9th, at 1 pm, at 2200 West Division St., St. Cloud, calling on SuperAmerica to do the right thing and give Makaida Alexander the same range of working hours she had before she publicly exercised her right to organize in her workplace and not subject her to the danger of another overnight lone-worker shift.
