Labor turns up heat in grocery strike
Workers use militant tactics in fight to save
healthcare
BULLETIN:As we go to press on Jan. 21, nearly one
thousand grocery workers and their supporters protested outside
the Vons/Safeway corporate headquarters in Arcadia, Calif.
Twelve people were arrested for blocking the entrance,
including: Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770; John Grant,
strike director for Local 770; and the secretary-treasurer of
the California State Fede r ation of Labor. Also arrested were
John Parker and Preston Wood of the Community Action Project to
Support Labor/ANSWER, Mike Schwartz of L.A. Strike Support
Organization, and members of a Pasadena church.
By John Parker
Los Angeles
After 14 weeks of hardship and sacrifice, the
current phase of the struggle of 70,000 grocery workers in
Southern California has received a major boost.
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 had immediately responded to its initial call for
fundraising by pledging more than $600,000.
And the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
announced at a Jan. 21 media conference that it plans to raise
at least $1 million to $2 million for health benefits for the
picketing grocery workers.
With many workers facing the threat of losing their homes
and cars, these developments are right on time.
The strike and lockout involve a work force that is
predominantly Black, Latina/o and Asian workers, with a high
proportion of women. 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 intervention is a blow to the Greedy Three,
whose main strategy is to starve out the grocery workers and
bring them to their knees. The AFL-CIO involvement may compel
the supermarket chains to negotiate with the UFCW leaders in
good faith. And the role of the national labor organization has
the potential of being a challenge to the anti-worker Bush
administration and to the new governor of California, who has
begun imposing drastic cuts in healthcare on the poorest of the
state, particularly children. The AFL-CIO recognizes that the
crisis of healthcare is an issue that affects all its 15
million members.
Pressure from the rank and file of the union movement, along
with the community, brought the AFL-CIO into the fray.
"To win this, we need an expansion nationwide," stated Rick
Icaza, president of Local 770 in Los Angeles.
Class struggle heating up
In spite of severe hardships put on UFCW grocery workers in
southern Cali fornia due to the refusal of Vons, Albert sons
and Ralphs to negotiate in good faith, the UFCW local union
members and their leaders remain even more determined and more
willing to elevate the struggle against the big three grocery
chains.
As a result, more militant actions--like civil disobedience,
the expansion of pickets, and increased outreach to the
community and rank and file--are being implemented.
For example, at a Vons supermarket in Garden Grove on Jan.
17, union officials were among 15 arrested for blocking the
store entrance. Among those arrested were Greg Conger,
president of Orange County's UFCW Local 324; Art Pulaski, head
of the State Labor Federation; and Mike Garcia, local president
of the Service Employees International Union.
Local 770--the largest of the UFCW unions with over 20,000
members--resumed temporary pickets at Ralphs on Jan. 18.
Picketers had been removed from Ralphs early in the strike,
union officials said, to minimize hardship on consumers and
focus more of the attack on the Safeway chain, which owns Vons.
The Local 770 web site, in a brief report entitled "Back to
Picketing at Ralphs for a Day," declared Jan. 18 "a
success."
A rally at the Vons corporate headquarters in Arcadia is
planned for Jan. 21.
On Jan. 24 there will be services to mourn 10 grocery
workers whose deaths were related to the strike. In some instan
ces, stress was the cause, and in some exhaustion.
On Jan. 27, the UFCW is organizing a caravan to the home of
Steven Burd, Safeway CEO and the engine behind the
supermarkets' strategy. Burd's home will be surrounded with
religious leaders and striking families who will bring their
children and puppies.
Burd has proclaimed his commitment to the welfare of
animals, so the union is demanding that he also recognize the
impact on the children's lives of his refusal to provide
adequate healthcare to his employees.
One worker from Local 342, for example, fell asleep at the
wheel and was killed while trying to supplement his income by
driving a pizza truck at night after his picketing shift.
The grocery workers' determination to keep on fighting is
partly motivated by a desire to not let those who've fallen in
battle die in vain.
Anger mounts, community-labor support grows
Local 770 successfully blocked a cynical attempt by the
superstore Wal-Mart to sponsor this year's annual Martin Luther
King Day parade in Los Angeles. This year's parade was
initially sponsored by Wal-Mart, a terrible insult to Dr.
King's legacy as well as the labor movement and the oppressed
community.
After City Councilmember Martin Ludlow approached the labor
community about this issue, Wal-Mart--a racist, anti-worker,
anti-union corporation--was out and labor was in. The AFL-CIO
became the official sponsor of this year's parade.
This was a victory for the hundreds of thousands in the
Black community in Los Angeles, who make up a high percentage
of grocery workers.
The UFCW Local 770 website explains: "Dr. Martin Luther King
died 36 years ago fighting for striking union members in
Memphis. It is because of civil rights pioneers like Dr. King
that we have the right to fight collectively for our
healthcare, our pensions, our wages and our futures. Every
single member is encouraged to participate in the annual Martin
Luther King Day parade today in South Los Angeles."
And the unity didn't end with the parade. A local Black
community organization had called for a solidarity picket at
the Albertsons located at the beginning of the parade. Union
officials decided to endorse and participate in the event. As a
result, a loud and militant picket line blocked the entrance to
the store.
All out for Jan. 31
The biggest example of this new strategy to cement further
community and labor support is the building of a massive march
and rally on Jan. 31. Local 770 is devoting many of its
resources and has gotten commitments from the Central Labor
Council and State Labor Federation to make this a success.
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--Com mu nity and Labor
Acting to Save Healthcare.
This newly formed Local 770 group will concentrate all its
efforts on building this march and rally. It is charged with
activating community, labor and UFCW rank-and-file support for
the rally and includes a full-time staffer from this group
assisted by the local.
"We plan on getting as many posters up, leaflets out,
petition signatures and phone calls made to every labor,
student and community organization and their rank-and-file
members as humanly possible," said Page Getz, a member of the
group who is concentrating on getting publicity out to some of
the progressive radio stations.
A new determination that can be felt and sensed, like a
powerful second wind, is pushing forward the struggle to save
healthcare and the union. The community support has risen in
concert with the heroic sacrifices of the grocery workers.
Reprinted from the Jan. 29, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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