Hundreds of Benefit Fund Trustees Question Viability of Rite Aid Pharmacy Benefit Manageme...(lly binding language that directs Rite A...),Health

conduct when there is a merger or takeover like that of the

Eckerd/Brooks stores. Rite Aid is required to recognize the union as

the collective bargaining agent for, and apply the terms of the contract

to, any acquired stores within the contract's geographic area when the

union demonstrates majority support.

- The company has instructed Eckerd store managers to:

1) deny union organizers access to stores so that they cannot inform

workers of their rights;

2) confiscate union literature;

3) interrogate and take other action intended to intimate workers.

- Rite Aid's management has publicly stated that they seek to "operate in

a union-free environment."

On the West Coast:

- The ILWU is currently in a heated struggle with Rite Aid over union

recognition for the workers at the company's distribution center in

Southern California.

- When workers began to organize, Rite Aid launched an anti-union effort

that included firings, suspension and arbitrary discipline of union

supporters. The National Labor Relations Board found enough evidence to

try Rite Aid on 49 violations of labor law. Rite Aid settled rather

than face an NLRB judge. The Board is now investigating new charges.

Peter Olney, of the ILWU told conference attendees, "The workers at Rite Aid's distribution center came to us wanting to organize in March 2006. What followed from Rite Aid was something you'd expect from Wal-Mart, not from a company that's 40 percent unionized."

In the past two months, the Canadian and US media have reported that the new CEO of Jean Coutu Group Inc., who in June sold 1,800 U.S. Brooks and Eckerd stores to Rite Aid, is urging shareholders to be patient after earnings were eroded by $24.8 million from its interest in Rite Aid Corp. Jean Coutu stock has dropped by
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