Posted on 12/17/2003 11:33:14 AM PST by CounterCounterCulture
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."
Screw them. As an IT contractor, I have gone without health insureance for the past two years.
How stupid. They want to bankrupt the source of their income. Who else would hire someone who did this? I would take names and make sure they NEVER got another job in my community.
I wonder how much money the UNION "leaders" are making while the grocery clerks walk the picket line?
They thought they were indispensable too.
And they were highly skilled and trained...
The stores are also free to retain those replacement workers if they wish to do so. The subject of whether they're to be released is one of many issues subject to bargaining. Usually the settlement requires them to be let go. In circumstances where a strike collapses, though, the union employees have to make an unconditional offer to return to work. At that point, they supposedly can't be discriminated against, but they get no priority.
The exception is those circumstances in which an employer commits an unfair labor practice. If that happens, affected employees must be hired back with back pay. This is one reason unions routine file "unfair" charges when they go on strike. In the case of the markets, they've filed against the two employeers who are engaging in the lock-out.
The thirty day scam referred to is a common ploy to try to break a current contract. In this circumstance, there is no current contract because it's expired.
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