PORTLAND, ORE. - Community members, worker advocates and women’s rights organizations delivered thousands of petition signatures to Fred Meyer’s central office today in Southeast Portland to demand fair pay for women employees. The petition delivery is part of the Oregon AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor, Congress of Industrial Organizations) Fix the Gap campaign. The goal of the campaign is to end the wage disparity at Fred Meyer stores, where women are twice as likely to be placed onto a lower paying schedule than men.[i]
At the petition delivery, leaders of labor and advocacy organizations spoke to participants before delivering the petition signatures:
“We are demanding Fred Meyer fix the gap today,” said Stacy Chamberlain, executive director of Oregon AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) Council 75. “As the labor movement in this community, we expect them to do better. When a worker is injured, held back or mistreated it is the responsibility of Oregon’s unions to speak up. The deliberate underpayment of women by this corporation must end.”
“Women deserve equal pay and opportunity, and that is not what is happening at Fred Meyer,” said Grayson Dempsey, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon. “No one should have to face tough decisions about which bills to pay or forgoing necessities like health care—simply because of their gender. Economic justice is a cornerstone of the fight for reproductive healthcare equity.”
Outside of Portland, community members delivered petitions to Fred Meyer stores in Bend, Eugene and Medford. To learn more about the Oregon AFL-CIO’s campaign to fix the gap at Fred Meyer, please visit www.FixTheGapOregon.com.
[i] https://nwlaborpress.org/2019/06/union-report-men-out-earn-women-at-fred-meyer/