Workers at Kmart warehouses in Georgia, New Jersey, and Ohio, where the company is trying to get around provisions in a contract signed last July, also organized protests. At the North Bergen Distribution Center in northern New Jersey, union members staged a one-hour walkout.

Kmart recently sold its North Carolina warehouse to Advance Logistics, an outside contractor who will continue to run it for the retail giant. The new company has reportedly agreed to sign a contract with UNITE honoring the current contract terms. But Kmart maintains that if its deal with Advance Logistics doesn't work out, it can retake control and, as a "new" owner, scrap all deals with the union. Kmart has so far refused to sign an agreement stating it will not carry out this threat.

"We can't trust Kmart," UNITE representative Phil Cohen told the Greensboro News and Record. "All we want here is this guarantee. Without it, in the future they could legally say, 'We're not going to hire you' to our members and bring in other people."

The Greensboro warehouse employs more than 600 workers. After a hard-fought organizing campaign, workers voted to join UNITE in 1993, and then waged a three-year battle to win a contract.

Naomi Craine is a member of Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 1501.  
 
 
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