That's "Giant rally" as in "Giant Food rally"
Hundreds of Teamsters, labor supporters and D.C.’s own resident rapper Head-Roc protested outside of the Food Marketing Institute’s (FMI) annual public policy meeting at the Hyatt Regency hotel.
Two of FMI’s highest-profile corporate members, C&S Wholesale Grocers and Dutch-owned Royal Ahold, have been destroying middle class jobs in states up and down the East Coast. They've been closing facilities and shipping jobs to low-wage warehouses in other states. Giant Food is a subsidiary of Royal Ahold.
During the rally, Head-Roc got the crowd of more than a hundred pumping with his song, “Giant Ain’t The G They Used To Be”:
Giant Food!Teamster General President Jim Hoffa and General Secretary-Treasurer Tom Keegel joined Head-Roc on stage. Hoffa said
Well known in the DMV,
They ‘bout to do us like Wal-Mart it’s plain to see.
Got their start here locally, now they Fancy International
And ain’t what they used to be!
The new Corporate Policy,
Is called “Turn your back on the Community!”
Teamsters Together! We Gonna Brave the Weather!
Organized to Protect the Lives we Treasure!
These multi-billion dollar grocery giants are meeting with their highly-paid lobbyists in the hotel behind you because they want to rig the system. They want to siphon as much money out of workers, shoppers and the American economy as they can, by destroying good, middle-class jobs.Thomas Ratliff, president of Teamsters Local 639 in Washington, D.C., said the Teamsters wouldn’t stand for such attacks on workers:
We’re not going to take this lying down. Giant and Royal Ahold want to talk about sacrifice, but they are forgetting the sacrifice our members gave to help make these companies successful.Sign a petition here to tell Giant Foods to quit outsourcing good jobs.