Posted on 02/09/2004 7:53:57 PM PST by calcowgirl
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 6 — Four months into one of the biggest labor disputes in decades, the union representing 70,000 striking or locked-out Southern California supermarket workers is waging an increasingly confrontational — some say desperate — campaign to fend off cuts in members' health care benefits.
A hundred union supporters shut down a Safeway in Santa Cruz for an hour and a half recently, dancing and chanting in a conga line through the store. Others disrupted a golf tournament in Pebble Beach on Friday, shouting slogans at two supermarket board members who were about to tee off. Labor leaders are threatening to harass supermarket executives wherever they vacation, be it on beaches or ski slopes.
In the biggest rally yet, about 14,000 union supporters demonstrated in Los Angeles on Jan. 31. Pressure against the affected supermarket chains is being brought outside Southern California as well. Thirteen union supporters were arrested not long ago at a sit-in blocking the entrance of a Safeway in Oakland. And 200, including a dozen clerics, demonstrated near the Bay Area home of Safeway's chairman, Steven Burd.
"This is not a battle about Southern California; this is a war for the whole country, particularly over health care," said Ron Judd, West Coast regional director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. "This should be seen as the poster child of what employers are willing to do to take away health care."
The union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, describes its action as a goal-line stand against supermarket efforts to reduce benefits while having workers begin paying for part of their coverage. Organized labor says that if the union loses here, corporate managers everywhere may be emboldened to cut back on health benefits.
The grocery chains maintain that with health costs soaring, it is time for workers to begin paying something for their medical coverage and for management to be allowed to limit its own contributions.
About the only thing that union and management can agree on is that the dispute is exacting deep pain from both sides. The companies — Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger — have lost nearly $2 billion in sales at their 852 Southern California stores. Several union locals involved in the dispute have had to mortgage their headquarters to finance strike benefits, which, with related expenses, have on occasion amounted to $10 million a week.
The 70,000 workers receive no unemployment benefits, and their employer-paid health coverage ran out on Dec. 31. The insurer has offered a two-month extension for $400, which many workers have paid, some with help from the union. But others are now without coverage.
Many also complain that their strike benefits have been cut to $125 a week from $240, and are telling of being evicted and losing their cars to repossession. Isabel Valles, a cashier for 18 years, has left her $650-a-month apartment and moved in with her mother. Maria Benancio, a cashier for nine years, is feeling so much stress that she has started taking antidepressants.
"It's really hard," Ms. Benancio said. "I want it to be over."
But union and management warn that the two sides remain so far apart that the dispute could last several months more. "We are ramping it up," said Richard Trumka, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s secretary-treasurer. "This fight will go on as long as it takes to bring management to their senses and to negotiate a fair deal."
The walkout began on Oct. 11, when, six days after the most recent contract expired, more than 20,000 workers struck Vons and Pavilions, two Safeway subsidiaries. In solidarity with Safeway, Kroger, which owns the Ralphs chain, and Albertsons locked out nearly 50,000 workers the next day. Safeway, Kroger and Albertsons have been negotiating jointly with the union.
The chains say they need to cut costs — deeply and soon — because Wal-Mart plans to open 40 combined discount stores and supermarkets in Southern California over the next five years. Grocery executives say they will not be able to compete because Wal-Mart and other nonunionized companies often pay their workers $8 an hour less in combined wages and benefits than union workers receive.
"The health care plan we provide," said one supermarket executive involved in the talks, "is not a Cadillac plan, it's a Rolls-Royce plan. And we're providing that at zero cost to employees. This is an outdated concept that needs to change."
Management wants workers to begin paying $260 a year for individual health coverage and $780 for family coverage. The companies hope to cap their health contribution at $4.30 an hour per worker for existing employees — and less than a third of that, $1.35, for new employees — a move the union says will undercut coverage as health costs escalate.
Management has also proposed a lower wage tier for new workers. Top wages currently range from $7.40 an hour for grocery baggers to $17.90 for cashiers; under the companies' proposal, top cashiers' pay would be $15.10.
Paul Clark, a Penn State labor relations professor who edited a recent book on trends in collective bargaining, said the dispute could have nationwide repercussions.
"If the union loses this and has to give back a significant portion of their health benefits," Professor Clark said, "you're really moving down the road to everybody beginning to be a Wal-Mart worker with low wages and low benefits."
Most recently there has been a burst of maneuvering. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that he is willing to intervene to foster a settlement. Seeking to gain popular support and get their members back to work, union leaders have called for binding arbitration, but the companies said they saw no need to bring in an outsider when the federal government's top mediator, Peter Hurtgen, was already involved. Mr. Hurtgen has asked the two sides to resume talks quickly. [They now say they will do so on Feb. 11.]
The grocery workers' union recently asked the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to become more involved and oversee a national strategy to pressure the supermarkets. The labor federation has urged other unions to contribute millions of dollars to the cause and has asked union members to "adopt" California grocery workers to help them make ends meet.
Brian Dowling, Safeway's chief spokesman, said the supermarkets were hardly worried about labor's pressure tactics. "The market pressure that gets exerted on us if a low-cost nonunion operator is allowed to enter a market like Southern California with a major cost advantage, that's really pressure," Mr. Dowling said. "The other pressure they're putting on us is ho-hum."
Union leaders say they have offered an important concession: if the companies pledge to maintain health coverage at current levels, they say, employees will contribute even more than management has demanded, a move the union says would save the employers $340 million over the life of a three-year contract. But management says that the proposal does not address its desire to cap its contributions and that without the changes it seeks, the three companies' health costs are projected to rise by $1 billion over three years.
On Thursday, 250 union supporters rallied on Wall Street to warn that the dispute was making the supermarkets a bad investment. The union says analysts have found that while Safeway might save $65 million a year by cutting labor costs, the cost of the dispute in lost pretax profits could be more than twice that.
"Every week this goes on, our people are hurting more; I don't minimize that," said Joseph Hansen, the union's secretary-treasurer. "But I don't see how these companies recover from the losses they're suffering."
Our local N. Texas stores have self-scanners.... pretty cool too. Ain't no way a checker should be making that much money, the job is nt worth it. There are also stores here, Sack'N'Save, that employ no baggers. Customers bag their own stuff. You save money too.
I understand that New York is considering a new plan to force small businesses to pay $3,000 a year per employee for health benefits.... I wonder how many jobs that will destroy?
When they become abusive they outlive their usefulness to both the society and their members.
It's horrible that they now have to pay $15 per week for health care coverage. NOT!
These idiots would probably be horrified if they had to PAY the $90 every 2 weeks I have to as a Federal employee. It used to cost me $100+ when I was in the private sector.
I think unions have now been useless to society and their members for about 25 years.
Odd. The Albertsonses up here in the Sacramento area are not on strike. As much as I wish they were.
When did Santa Cruz become part of Southern CA?
I thought only SoCal supermarket workers' contracts expired.
If you ever where high school bullies go when they graduate, the ones that stay out of prison work as union goons.
Has anyone heard the California Teacher's Union running ads in support of this strike? What's that about?
Yep. More false advertising. The CTA script and audio clip are available Here for their current/recent ads. Script is as follows:
Teachers' Voice Radio Campaign - Solidarity (So. Cal. Version)
Barbara Kerr:
I'm Barbara Kerr, President of the California Teachers Association. Thousands of California grocery workers have been on strike for months. As teachers, we're concerned. Grocery workers are part of our communities and their children attend our schools. We see the strain on their kids every day. These workers are on strike because giant corporations are trying to destroy their health care. They're cutting benefits and raising premiums. So, many workers can't afford health care at all. Affordable insurance for them is important for everyone. When some people are uninsured, the medical bills they can't pay end up raising costs for all of us. Fair benefits for them means more stable health costs. So, please support striking grocery workers by not shopping at Vons, Pavilion, Albertsons, or Ralph's. For the workers, for their kids, for us all.Announcer:
This message was brought to you by the California Teachers Association.
Because that's what they're worth. They're only cashiers and shelf stockers, for crying out loud. These are low skilled jobs and in the free market get low skill wages.
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