On the picket line

So. Cal. grocery workers okay strike

From Bakersfield, Calif., to the Mexican border, 95 percent of grocery workers at Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons voted on June 24 to authorize a strike after the chains failed to meet a deadline for a formal offer. The 65,000 workers are represented by the Food and Commercial Workers union. (UFCW press release, June 24)

The primary issues are the same as when the workers struck in 2003-2004: wages and health care insurance. Negotiations, which have been going on for six months, have led to an agreement that the time new employees have to wait before getting healthcare benefits will be slashed, but both sides remain far apart on how to fund the health plan and the size of raises. Another unresolved issue is what to do about workers hired after the 2004 strike, who received lower wages and benefits.

In the meantime, each of the supermarket chains stole more than $3 billion in profits from the workers in 2006.

To show why the workers need a raise, the union has created a TV ad to be aired in July. “Supermarket Swindle” is now posted on its web site (www.respectufcw.com) and on YouTube.

The video explains that the workers have had zero raises in the last five years, in contrast with huge raises received by the chains’ CEOs: $9.5 million, or a 210.5 percent hike, for Albertsons’ CEO; $8.3 million, or a 124.3 percent hike, for Kroger’s CEO; and $7 million, or a 600 percent hike, for Vons’ CEO. Meanwhile the cost of food prices went up 12.2 percent in the last five years.

In Dallas and Houston more than 13,000 Kroger workers in Locals 408, 455 and 540 narrowly averted a strike after they voted to ratify a three-year contract on June 25. They will receive wage increases up to as much as $3 an hour; adequate, affordable heath care benefits; increased vacation time with greater flexibility; and improved pension security. (UFCW press release, June 25)

At a Swift plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, about 1,900 workers in UFCW Local 1149 voted June 30 to ratify a three-year contract with raises from $1.40 an hour, for the base rate, to $2 an hour for certain job categories. Additional health care benefits will be provided, with the maximum lifetime health insurance coverage increased from $1 million to $2 million. (UFCW press release, July 1)

If grocery workers in other parts of the country can negotiate raises and better health care benefits without having to strike, the workers in California shouldn’t have to strike either. Stay tuned.

Labor unrest at Wall St. Journal

While Rupert Murdoch is negotiating with Dow Jones to buy the Wall Street Journal for $5 billion, staff members walked off their jobs on June 28 to demand a fair contract. Represented by the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, CWA/TNG Local 1096, the workers held their last bargaining session on June 27.

A June 29 union press release noted that Dow Jones’ management was still “very reluctant to compromise. That is why it was so important for us to demonstrate our unity. We meet again on July 12.” Worried about Murdock’s intention to make the paper solely an online periodical and issues of editorial control, the workers took the unprecedented step of not showing up at their desks until midafternoon.

Air traffic controllers ‘dress up’

Air traffic controllers, who were forced to accept a new contract

last September that included a restrictive dress code, are signaling their dissatisfaction with the contract in “high-flying fashion.” Some men are coming to work in dresses or kilts. (Associated Press, June 28)

When the 15,000-member National Air Traffic Controllers Association (organized in 1987) and the Federal Aviation Administration reached an impasse in contract negotiations last September, the FAA was permitted by law to implement a new one. Controllers don’t like changes in schedules, no mandatory breaks every two hours and pay issues, including a pay cut for new hires.

The law allowing the FAA to impose contracts on the controllers was passed after President Ronald Reagan stopped the controllers’ strike in 1981 by firing nearly 12,000 workers who refused to return to work and disbanded PATCO, the controllers’ union at that time.

Postal carriers protest outsourcing

Postal carriers in Paterson, N.J., and 17 cities in Florida held informational picket lines on June 17 to show their opposition to job outsourcing in their areas. More demonstrations are planned in other areas by the Letter Carriers union (NALC) to inform the public that low-wage, no-benefits, part-time contractors are being hired to replace union workers. That threatens to diminish postal service and to endanger the 118-year-old union.

This frontal attack on mail carriers is part of the Bush administration’s drive to privatize government functions and deprive workers of union representation.

Atlantic City dealers join UAW

Casino dealers at Bally’s Atlantic City dealt themselves a good hand when they voted June 4 to join the autoworkers union. Dealers at Caesars Atlantic City and Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino had voted to join the union in March. Many of Atlantic City’s 45,000 casino workers are already represented by unions, but dealers were not among them until this year.