Grocery Union Threatens Pickets Across U.S., Canada

Reuters (via Yahoo News) ^ | 16 December 2003 | Sue Zeidler

[CounterCounterCulture]

Grocery Union Threatens Pickets Across U.S., Canada

Tue Dec 16, 7:55 PM ET

By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Union leaders on Tuesday called for pickets of Safeway stores across North America in support of 70,000 Southern California grocery workers who have been out of work for two months in a contract dispute with Safeway and two other leading chains.

Over the next few weeks, the United Food and Commercial Workers union said it would ask consumers not to shop at Safeway stores. Protests could also broaden to include acts of civil disobedience by supporting religious groups, a union spokesman said after a rally in Los Angeles.

Talks between the UFCW, which represents some 1.4 million workers, and Safeway Inc., Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co. are set to resume on Friday under federal mediation.

Both sides remain far apart on the key issue of how much the grocery chains should pay for employee health insurance coverage under a new contract. The union has singled out Safeway for taking the toughest line in negotiations.

The labor dispute has been widely watched both as a sign of the wider debate on U.S. employee health care coverage and for its potential to cut operating costs for the grocery chains, something they say they need to compete with cut-rate operators like Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

"We are going to target Safeway operations in the U.S. and Canada -- we are going to ask workers, consumers and communities to 'shop-out' and shut down Safeway's profits," Doug Dority, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, said at a news conference.

"We want to empty the stores as well as the cash drawers. Safeway only understands money, so we will take action to cut them off from the source of their money -- workers, consumers and communities," he said.

Labor leaders from across the country gathered on Tuesday to discuss the strike as thousands of strikers and supporters staged a march through the streets of Century City and Beverly Hills.

THREAT DISMISSED

Brian Dowling, a spokesman for Safeway, dismissed the threatened union action.

"This is nothing new. They've been calling for a version of this for a long time," noting that the union had recently picketed in Washington, D.C. and northern California with minimal impact.

"It's an old tactic and it won't impact what's going on in Southern California. The irony is we're going to the bargaining table on Friday and they're calling for a boycott," he said.

TWO-MONTH OLD DISPUTE

The strike began on Oct. 11, when workers staged a walkout at Safeway's Vons and Pavilions stores. The next day, Albertsons and Ralphs, a unit of Kroger, which bargain jointly with Safeway, locked out their unionized employees.

Talks have hit an impasse even though the financial pain on both sides has mounted.

Kroger, for example, posted third-quarter earnings that were half of what Wall Street had expected after the labor dispute drove shoppers away from its stores.

Striking workers, meanwhile, have been collecting strike pay of only about $200 a week from the UFCW, which has not said how much the strike has cost.

"We will not allow the elimination of health care benefits. We will not allow workers to be starved into giving up health care for their families," Dority said on Tuesday.

Others who spoke at the press conference included John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO umbrella union body; Melissa Gilbert, president of the Screen Actors Guild; and John Connelly, president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Tuesday's gathering also served as a fundraiser, with various union leaders from around the country and Canada pledging money to help the striking workers.

"The UFCW International Union already has a financial package to fund the basic strike benefit well into the new year," said Dority, adding that "millions of dollars are being poured into Southern California to win this fight."

[VOA]

Union leaders on Tuesday called for pickets of Safeway stores across North America
in support of 70,000 Southern California grocery workers who have been out
of work for two months in a contract dispute with Safeway and two other leading chains.

These "union leaders" must be on the payroll of Wal-Mart!

First, they enthusiatically support illegal immigration...thus ensuring a
growing supply of workers willing, ready and able to take what these same
union leaders would call "scab" jobs.

Second, they are doing all they can to weaken their employers when Wal-Mart is
just about to invade Southern California...when Wal-Mart arrives with lots of
lower prices, more than a few of the stores of these wounded chains will be shuttered.

Finally, going on strike and trying to keep the customers (who pay both the
supermarket bosses, the union leaders and the union members) out of the stores
over two major holidays when sales are HUGH...

Dumb and dumber...

[BunnySlippers]

That is a terrible way to bust a union. Means the company must, in essense, go out of business for one month!

[BunnySlippers]

In the LA I live in ... Brentwood and Hollywood, the picket lines are largely being honored. My local Gelson's has gotten a lot of the run-over business.

I routinely cross the lines at Von's and Ralph's (no lines) but the shelves are very sparse. And the crowds at Von's and Ralph's are small.

[CdMGuy]

Their membership, the ones who work at Safeway, should be asking their union leaders why they are organizing a boycott? Even if partially successful, less business means less need for workers, and union employees in Safeway stores would face a lay-off.

I live in So. Cal. The union has screwed their members royally. The strike is now in its third month with no end in sight. These workers will never get back the wages they lost. Once the strike is over, you can count on the supers announcing that quite a few of their stores will be closing. There is an over supply of supermarkets in So Cal. The marginal ones will be closed and the union members will be on the street.

Wal Mart is just now entering the metropolitan areas of CA with their Super Wal Mart stores. In another 2 years, the supers will be decimated unless they get their labor costs under control now.

[CounterCounterCulture]

There is sure a lot of union bashing on this thread.

Damn right. Happy to see it.

I wonder if all if you will take the same stance when the Sheriff's, local police, firefighters, and prison guards conduct a work action.

Public servants should not conduct work actions if they really care about the people. Get union thugs out of vital government services now.

[cksharks]

Unions and unions and unions are all thugs. Makes no difference who, what or where they represent. Since the mid 70's they have become a scourge on this country.

[BurbankKarl]

I think the first SuperWalmart opens in Palm Desert 1st quarter 2004....

Gilroy 12/2004
Woodland approved
Yuba City approved
Redding approved
Chico approved
Calexico approved
Lodi voting
Manteca voting
Inglewood 2005

Turlock just voted them down
Contra Costa County, Martinez, Oakland, Simi Valley, Paso Robles zoned them out

[cake_crumb]

They're only a small minorty of union workers. UAW, Teamsters and AFLCIO have pretty much ruined our economy, the NEA is a rabid socialist organization out to steal our country and the hearts and minds of our children. We have no way to make laws to limit the power of unions, so if they go on strike and especially if they get violent with the scabs, yes. Sorry.

[Smogger]

They're only a small minorty of union workers. UAW, Teamsters and AFLCIO have pretty much ruined our economy

Now it's only a "small minority" of unions that have "ruined our economy"? But the other posters claim all are a "scourge" on our country.

Whatever. I have only been represented by a union once in my short life and I don't recall being much of a "thug" at the time or seeing it as a bad thing. Now that I am an older management type (a programmer not represented by a union) let me tell you if my company tried to screw me over, my "work action" would hurt their bottom line considerably more then standing out in front of their building with a picket sign.

[Landru]

Ummmmm, these grocery workers led by their union thug leaders?

...they're really asking for it.

[Smogger]

In another 2 years, the supers will be decimated unless they get their labor costs under control now.

I doubt that. For one thing there is no place to build "Super Wal-Mart's" in metropolitan Los Angeles. You can't even build a decent grocery store there. For another thing they face vastly more competition here then they do in other states. I am sure they will do alright, but the Safeway CEO's predictions of Wal-Mart World Domination are vastly exaggerated in my opinion.

[dc27]

The longer the strike lasts, the less money the UFCW has to support Howard Dean.

[Smogger]

Public servants should not conduct work actions if they really care about the people

If they care about "the people?" ROTFLMFAO

[Cinnamon Girl]

I heard a chick on the picket line tell KFI news that "people should stop yelling from their cars for us to 'get back to work' because it's not helpful."

GET BACK TO WORK!

[philetus]

Ever been frustrated by slow-moving supermarket lines? Or thought you could scan your own groceries faster than a cashier? Kroger is giving impatient shoppers a chance to prove it.
The Cincinnati-based supermarket chain is the first company to experiment with the U-Scan Express in Houston.

The high-tech automated checkout system lets diehard do-it-yourselfers scan their own groceries, pay for them with cash or a credit card, and bag the items all without the help of a cashier.

But don't get too excited just yet. U-Scan only works for customers who want to go through the express lane with an order of 16 items or less.

Kroger unveiled the concept this week at its Signature Store at Kuykendahl and Louetta in northwest Harris County. While it's a long way from perfect, industry experts are expecting the time-pressured customer to embrace U-Scan much as they did Automated Teller Machines.

Across the country, Kroger and competitors are installing the U-Scan and similar technology at a rapid pace. At the Kuykendahl store, if customers are still using the U-Scan after the novelty wears off, Kroger will begin installing the machinery in all 85 of its stores here.

[Smogger]

Been there done that, a total rip off. At least when you bag the groceries yourself at Food 4 Less and Pack 'N Save, the grocer passes some of the savings back to you in the form of savings.

They had those machines at Ralph's here in San Dimas. You mean Ralph's (Kroeger) is going to bend me over with outragously high prices, make me show a membership card so they can track all my purchases, and then make me scan and bag my own groceries, while the defective machine repeatedly instructs me to "put the scanned item in the bag", even though it won't fit, as the kicker.

They put a Albertson's in down the street and Ralph's U-Scan was yanked shortly thereafter. Our local K-Mart installed one with similar disasterous results. It's gone to.

People like to have someone to bitch to.

[SauronOfMordor]

I wonder if all if you will take the same stance when the Sheriff's, local police, firefighters, and prison guards conduct a work action.

Civil-service unions would be advised to remember Reagan and the Air Traffic Controllers.

Around my neck of the woods, the police are welcome to strike -- we're all armed. I'm reminded of a police strike in Albuquerque, N. M. in 1974. The citizens started patrolling their neighborhoods themselves. With shotguns. Crime went down considerably

[cajun-jack]

safeway and kroger both priced themselves out of buisiness here in NE Louisiana several years ago...there is one albertson's here but it is less than 2 yrs old and in the most affluent part of town. Even their sale items are too expensive for me.

I have been a supermarket manager and have owned 2 very small stores..there isn't as much profit in the grocery biz as everyone thinks there is...there really has to be a lot of volume to really make money. There is always employee pilfering and breakage and numerous other things to take the profits away.

Honestly, how many people do you know that can afford to walk a picket line for $50.00 a week right here before Christmas...methinks there just might not be as much sympathy from the folks drawing a full paycheck everyweek as they think. (but i have been wrong once or maybe twice in my life)

Hell, even an illegal mexican girl can drag an item across the scanner and the cash register tells you how much you owe...pedro can throw your stuff in a sack and take it to your car...they will both work for $6.00 and hour and actually work...that's $12.00 an hour between them...they will live (compared to what they're used to) like kings..and support half a village at the same time.

But now, I'm just a dumbass old truckdriver so what the hell do i know??

[ErnBatavia]

I think the first SuperWalmart opens in Palm Desert 1st quarter 2004....

Actually next door, right here in La Quinta....the shell is up and that sucker is huge!

The irony is that (by geography) the closest stores to be buried by Wally will be the non-striking Stater Brothers (2 on the main drag) and Jensens.

[Protagoras]

I wonder if all if you will take the same stance when the Sheriff's, local police, firefighters, and prison guards conduct a work action.

Work action? Is that a polite phrase for forcing others to stop working to support your wage demands?