Joanna
Devine, James wrote:
Friends:
The baggers, deli clerks, cashiers, and other employees at Vons/Pavillion (owned by Safeway), Ralphs (owned by Kroger), and Albertsons are on strike, as of Saturday night, and would appreciate your not crossing their picket line. [Two of the companies locked out their employees "in solidarity" with Ralphs. --JD] Their union, the United Food & Commercial Workers, has created a website with information about the strike, as well as a list of alternative supermarkets in each city. http://www.saveourhealthcare.org. Please inform your relatives, friends and neighborhoods who live in California about this strike.
The UFCW represents 70,000 Vons/Pavillons, Ralphs, and Albertsons workers in Southern California. The three chains -- all large national corporations with growing profits that control 60% of the market in the LA area alone -- have demanded that workers take a 50% cut in the health insurance and retirement benefits as well as an increase is subscription drug costs. Additionally, the companies want to initiate a "two-tier" wage system where new hires would be doing the same work as current employees but at much lower pay.
Think how you'd feel if your employer tried to cut your benefits in half! Not suprisingly, more than 95% of UFCW workers voted to reject the companies' demand and go on strike. These workers are simply trying to make ends make and the chains are pushing them to the wall. The companies misleadingly claim that they cannot afford decent labor costs and still compete with non-union companies like Wal-Mart.
Historically, "enlightened" corporate leaders have understood that a high-road economy -- one that promotes improving workers' skills, providing good wages and benefits, and better productivity -- strengthens the overall social and economic health of the nation. Henry Ford, while no friend of unions, knew that his workers had to make enough money to buy the cars he was producing. Companies like Wal-Mart, which is attempting to make inroads in the Los Angeles area, symbolize the "low-road" corporate strategy. (See the recent Business Week cover story, "Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?"-- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_40/b3852001_mz001.htm) They rely on mostly part-time workers, pay low wages without benefits, resist unions, and out-source much of their production (of clothes and toys) to sweatshops in Asia and Latin America. If Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons succeed at mimicking the Wal-Mart approach, it will pull down America's middle class standard-of-living. It will also be a signal to other companies, whether unionized or not, that it's time to go to war - or in the euphemistic corporate language, "make efficiency gains" - at the expense of working families.
So while this strike is specifically about the workers at these chain supermarket stories, it also has much larger implications.
Thanks for expressing your solidarity with the UFCW members by boycotting Vons/Pavillion, Ralphs, and Alberton's during the strike. [and lock-out]
Peter Dreier Occidental College
(forwarded by Jim Devine)
