[news] Workplace Activist Incurs the Wrath of Loblaws

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Workplace Activist Incurs the Wrath of Loblaws

Ben Blasdell, a member of UFCW Local 1000a who took a stand against a <a href="http://www.ufcw.net/articles/UFCW_1000a/secret_deals_done_dirt_cheap.php">secret deal</a> made by his employer, the hugely profitable Loblaw Companies and his union, has been suspended indefinitely from his job at a Loblaws supermarket in Collingwood Ontario.

With a decision pending in the duty of fair representation complaint he filed against the UFCW earlier this year, Blasdell was summoned to his manager's office this past Monday and questioned about his whereabouts on a day in November when he was off work due to illness. Blasdell states that he was legitimately off sick that day (his third sick day so far this year) and he has a doctor's note to prove it. The company, however, suspended him indefinitely.

The union reformer believes that the suspension may have something to do with his opposition to the secret deal and is planning to challenge the suspension as a form of reprisal for exercising his legal rights.

Friends and supporters of Ben Blasdell have established a legal defence fund to help him with the cost of legal representation that he'll need to fight this latest attack on workers' rights. 

If you would like to support Ben and his fight for workers rights, you can make your donation at any branch of the Bank of Montreal, to account name "Members for Democracy 1000a" or "MFD 1000a", account #8092-678, branch transit #2303.


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