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Kmart Workers 14-August-1996 
 
 
 
96288       Greensboro Presbyterians Jubilant Over New 
               Agreement Ratified by Kmart Workers  
                                  
                         by Julian Shipp 
 
GREENSBORO, N.C.--Four Presbyterian pastors among the residents here are 
excited over the ratification July 25 of a new collective bargaining 
agreement by members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile 
Employees (UNITE) working at the Kmart distribution center. 
      
     The agreement brings to an end a nearly three-year battle that spilled 
over into civil disobedience demonstrations at Kmart stores by Kmart 
employees, Greensboro religious leaders and community supporters. 
 
     The Rev. James Herbert Nelson II, the Rev. Thomas K. Lane, the Rev. 
Frank M. Dew and the Rev. Zeb N. Holler were among the Presbyterian 
ministers involved in the union protests as members of the Greensboro 
Pulpit Forum, a predominantly African-American ministerial alliance. Other 
pastors, including some from larger, predominantly white congregations, 
also became involved. 
 
     The Kmart shipping workers said they were paid significantly less than 
their Kmart counterparts in other parts of the country. They complained 
that distribution center employees in Greensboro earned an average of $4.60 
less per hour than employees at the other 12 Kmart distribution centers 
across the nation. 
 
     According to the Pulpit Forum, Greensboro also has the only Kmart 
distribution center where the majority of workers are minorities and where 
workers received fewer benefits than employees at any of the other centers.     
 
     Workers at the Kmart distribution center in Greensboro first voted for 
union representation in September of 1993. In April of the following year, 
64 workers were arrested after participating in a sit-in demonstration at 
the Greater Greensboro Open, a golf tournament sponsored by Kmart. 
 
     Last November, Pulpit Forum members endorsed a boycott against area 
Kmart stores to support the workers. Ministers, workers and community 
activists participated in civil disobedience demonstrations over the next 
several months. More than 150 people, including Nelson, Lane and Holler, 
were arrested. 
 
     "I feel good that the workers came to an agreement with a contract and 
that Kmart finally negotiated in good faith," Nelson said. "I think that 
this also establishes for us, and I think for the nation, a model for a new 
way of advocating for the rights of workers and for fairness in wages in 
the workplace."  
 
     Kmart officials said they were also pleased to finally settle the 
issue. 
 
     "We'd like to put the controversy behind us and the [center's] 
productivity in front of us," said Shawn Kahle, vice president of corporate 
affairs at Kmart. 
 
     Lane credited the religious and secular communities for their support 
of the workers during the demonstrations and praised their efforts to keep 
the boycott in the national spotlight. 
 
     "I think that in general there was a lot of feeling in Greensboro that 
it was really important for the community to begin to try to set what are 
acceptable norms for treating people in the workplace," Lane said. "The 
community was supportive, but especially the church community. I felt, for 
example, that Salem Presbytery, our presbytery, was very supportive." 
 
     Pressure was also exerted by the 208th General Assembly (1996) of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which adopted a resolution expressing concern 
over the Kmart labor dispute and hinting at a possible boycott of the giant 
retailer and sell-off of stock if the dispute was not settled by the end of 
the year. The denomination, with nearly three million members, holds 
202,000 shares of Kmart stock worth approximately $1.2 million. 
 
     "The action that the General Assembly took was very important," Dew 
said. "And we as Presbyterians here felt very proud of that and felt it was 
instrumental in the contract [negotiations]." 
 
     According to UNITE spokesperson Ben Hensler of Greensboro, the main 
features of the new agreement are 
 
          pay increases ranging from 22 percent to 52 percent over the next 
12 months 
          a $2.50 increase in the top wage 
          two new paid holidays per year 
          increases in paid sick leave 
          nondiscriminatory language regarding worker safety and health 
          new job bidding, grievance procedure and work standards language 
          a three-year term for the contract. 
 
     "This is an excellent new contract," said Bruce Raynor, executive vice 
president and Southern regional director of UNITE. "It was a long, tough 
battle, but the Kmart workers, with the tremendous support from the 
Greensboro community, were able to force the company to agree to a contract 
that offers them the highest wage increases that any hardline distribution 
center has ever received." 
 
     Steady progress in negotiations occurred over the last three months, 
with the final bargaining session taking place on July 23. The new contract 
went into effect July 28. 
 
     Although the labor dispute has been settled, Nelson said, a city forum 
has been scheduled Sept.  14 to discuss what particular issues surfaced 
during the conflict and what corrective measures remain to be implemented. 
In addition to Pulpit Forum members, meeting participants will include 
local business leaders and representatives from public organizations such 
as the YWCA. 
 
     "This whole problem is much bigger than Kmart, but is symptomatic of 
diminishing labor relations across the country," Nelson said. "Greensboro 
has a fantastic opportunity to not only shape a model through the types of 
things that have been done with the Pulpit Forum, but a model of what it 
means to establish community standards that do not allow companies to come 
in and pay wages that are not livable and to treat people indecently in the 
workplace." 
      
     But according to the Rev. Bill Somplatsky-Jarman, associate for 
Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) in the National Ministries 
Division, litigation is still pending in a lawsuit filed by Kmart. 
Following the series of protests, the corporation sued union members and 
their supporters in the Greensboro clergy, obtaining a court order to keep 
them off company property. 
 
     "The lawsuits have not been settled yet, so we will continue to keep 
an eye on those," Somplatsky-Jarman told the Presbyterian News Service. 
 
     Moreover, the union did not get everything it wanted. Top wages are 
still $2 an hour less than the Kmart distribution center average 
nationwide, according to Raynor. 
 
     Even so, Lane said he believes the upcoming forum could help 
Greensboro residents overcome what he described as a "historical community 
prejudice against organized labor" and help folks become more sensitive to 
basic human needs. That being the case, community leaders are hoping for a 
new epoch of community problem solving. 
 
     "We need to take more seriously the capacity of people who are in the 
lower rungs of our social and economic system, but who are real people," 
Lane said. "People of courage, people of intelligence and who have a great 
deal to offer as we try to move into this sort of new world that we don't 
have answers to." 

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