Jan. 31: Day of solidarity with California supermarket
workers
By Dianne Mathiowetz
Los Angeles
As part of a new coordinated effort by
organized labor to support the supermarket workers in Southern
California, a bus caravan left Los Angeles Jan. 27 headed for
the home of Safeway CEO Steven Burd.
The next big step of this new strategy to cement further
community and labor support is the building of a massive march
and rally on Jan. 31.
The grocery workers, predominantly Black, Latina/o and Asian
with a high proportion of women, have been involved in a strike
and lockout in Southern California supermarkets since early
October. They are fighting for their healthcare benefits,
pensions and decent wages against a two-tier hiring system.
These workers see that the Greedy Three supermarket
chains--Vons, Albertsons and Ralphs--continue to pay their CEOs
and executives millions in salaries, bonuses and stock options,
as well as health benefits that provide optimum care for them
and their families.
The AFL-CIO announced on Jan. 16 that it was developing a
national strategy for the strike and that more than 40 national
labor unions would participate. The caravan was part of this
effort.
Burd, who was paid $15 million last year, is a key player in
the supermarkets' attempt to break the United Food and
Commercial Workers union in the now over three-month-long
struggle. He has proclaimed his commitment to the welfare of
animals, so the union is demanding that he also recognize the
impact on children's lives of his refusal to provide adequate
healthcare to his employees.
In addition, a community and labor solidarity organization
kicked off by groups that held food and toy drives for the
striking and locked-out workers, including the Community Action
Project to Support Labor initiated by ANSWER-Los Angeles, has
unified and become the official representative of Local 770's
community outreach under the name CLASH--Community and Labor
Acting to Save Healthcare.
Organizing is going full speed for the Day of Solidarity
March and Rally in support of the striking and locked-out
grocery workers on Saturday, Jan. 31, sponsored by the Los
Angeles County Federation of Labor. Unions are mobilizing
throughout Southern California with thousands of longshore
workers, service workers, teamsters, plumbers, electricians,
healthcare providers, writers, musicians and actors planning to
come by busses, vans and cars.
John Parker, a leader of ANSWER and a CLASH organizer,
explains why the coalition that has organized much of the
anti-war protests of the past year has committed so much effort
to supporting the grocery workers' strike. "We are against war
on workers abroad, whether in Iraq or Palestine or Colombia.
And we are against the war being waged on workers and poor
people here in the United States. The biggest terrorist threat
facing workers is the attempt by Wall Street and the big
grocery chains to slash wages, eliminate healthcare and other
benefits, and strip workers from any dignity on the job. This
attempted 'Wal-Martization' will impact all working people
here."
Activists have distributed thousands of flyers in English,
Spanish and Korean. Large bright yellow or green posters
advertising the action can be seen on poles around the
city.
ANSWER is organizing a Jan. 29 news conference on the steps
of City Hall. They will issue a call for their constituents to
come out and march in support of the grocery workers and their
families, who are so determin edly fighting for healthcare and
their union.
Reprinted from the Feb. 5, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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