---

UAW Plans Major Kmart Action

18 September 2000

UAW Plans Major Kmart Action

    CLEVELAND, Sept. 18 UAW Regional Directors and
International Executive Board Members Geri Ochocinska, Director, Region 9 and
Warren Davis, Director, Region 2 report negotiations with Kmart Corporation's
two warehouses in Warren, Ohio and Morrisville, Pennsylvania broke off Friday
evening, September 15, 2000 as a result of the recalcitrant Kmart
Corporation's unwillingness to negotiate a fair and equitable contract for its
1600 warehouse workers in the Distribution Centers in Eastern Pennsylvania and
Ohio.

    SIMULTANEOUS PRESS CONFERENCES

    DATE:     September 18, 2000
    TIME:     5:00 PM
    PLACE:    Closed Ames Store
              Parkman Road (Route 422)
              Warren, Ohio
              (At Route 5 Bypass)

    DATE:     September 18, 2000
    TIME:     5:00 PM
    PLACE:    Buffalo, NY or Morrisville, PA
    Contact:  Geraldine Ochocinska, Director
              716-632-1540

    According to UAW as negotiations were failing Friday night, the Kmart
Corporation was simultaneously engaging in acts of intimidation against their
employees by erecting barriers around the parking lot of the closed Ames store
on Parkman Road in an attempt to bully the union into a weak position.  The
UAW intends to expose this most recent brand of Corporate tyranny by holding
simultaneous press conferences in the Warren, Ohio (Region 2) and in Buffalo,
New York (Region 9).
    "We are doing our best to reach an agreement that will benefit our members
at Kmart and help the company as well," said UAW President Stephen P. Yokich.
"A Company that has awarded its CEO with stock options that could be worth
more than $40 million certainly has the capability to negotiate a fair
settlement with its workers."
    "We will not be railroaded into a soft settlement because of the attempted
intimidation by the Corporation of their own employees and the communities
they live in," Geri Ochocinska, Director of UAW Region 9 stated.  Warren
Davis, Director, UAW Region 2 said. "We will not tolerate this type of foot
dragging negotiations nor the Corporation attempting to terrorize their own
employees by erecting temporary scab trucking locations."
    The UAW has hinted at a national boycott by one million UAW members from
coast to coast and is working at welding together a coalition of other labor
unions and progressive activists to send the CEO of the Kmart Corporation,
Chuck Conoway, a message. The UAW and the Union members will not be
intimidated and call for the Corporation to quit their foot dragging and
seriously reenter negotiations to arrive at a fair and equitable contract for
the Kmart Distribution workers.
    For further information contact:  Warren Davis or Rich Vadovski at
216-447-6080