Free Republic

BURLINGAME - In a show of support for the 70,000 Southern California grocery workers who are striking to prevent supermarket chains from destroying their health care benefits, the California Teachers Association today launched a statewide radio campaign calling on Californians not to shop at these stores. "Grocery workers are part of our communities and their children attend our schools," Barbara E. Kerr, president of the 335,000-member CTA, says in one ad. "We see the strain on their kids every day. These workers are on strike because giant corporations are trying to destroy their health care." The significant four-week campaign, which...

<p>Whatever the merits of the legal case California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is pursuing against the grocery stores involved in an ongoing labor dispute, his behavior has suggested that he is a partisan actor rather than a fair-minded advocate of justice. That's not good for the appearance of impartiality that is the foundation of California's legal system.</p>

Leaders tells group nothing's changed in dispute. By Neda Raouf Staff writer LONG BEACH - With hundreds of supporters chanting with them and cheering them on, 15 people were peacefully arrested Wednesday as they lay in the road in front of a Vons store at a rally to call for a contract and to show they will not back down. "Don't give up,' yelled Jack Butler, a representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, to the supportive crowd as he was cuffed with plastic restraints and taken by Long Beach Police officers to a nearby van. The rally,...

Religious leaders to make appeal By Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer A host of priests, rabbis, pastors and bishops will join union leaders and striking grocery clerks today on a "justice pilgrimage" to the home of Safeway Inc. boss Steve Burd. It is there that they hope to appeal to the chief executive's spiritual side. "We know that Steve Burd is a serious Christian and a compassionate man," said the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. "He hasn't really realized the suffering that he's causing. We feel like we need to call on him...

<p>NAPA -- The mammoth California Public Employees' Retirement System is stepping up its investor campaign to end the bitter 3-month-old supermarket strike in Southern California.</p> <p>Rob Feckner, chairman of the $154 billion fund's investment committee, said Thursday he has asked one of its major money managers -- Alliance Bernstein -- to exert pressure on Safeway Inc. to "bargain in good faith so we can get this behind us. (Alliance) is a big holder in the company, and they need to get involved," he said.</p>

They have picketed through a change in governors, smoke-filled skies, torrential rains and a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. And, as of today, they have endured 100 days without their regular paychecks. The strike involving Southern California's 70,000 grocery clerks is the longest in the history of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, and there's no end in sight. Small groups of clerks have gone back to work while others have gotten new jobs after being on strike or locked out since fall. For Albertson's, Ralphs and Vons, there have been heavy losses from lost business, and, even when the strike...

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. - Fifteen people were arrested during a weekend labor rally in front of Vons supermarket as a Southern California grocery strike slid into its 100th day. The pickets, including Anaheim City Councilman Richard Chavez, were arrested on a misdemeanor charge of failing to disperse, then cited and released. The rally Saturday drew 1,200 people. About 70,000 grocery clerks from Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Albertsons Inc. have been locked out or on strike since Oct. 11 over contract differences, particularly the cost and scope of health care benefits for current employees and future hires. The...

Walk down any aisle in a major supermarket and look at the products on the shelves. If you wonder how they got there, it wasn't random luck, a clerk's decision or even the invisible hand of the free market system. Food product manufacturers pay major supermarket chains slotting fees to guarantee space on store shelves. They pay even more to make sure their products are visible and easily accessible to shoppers. The Federal Trade Comission estimates that these fees amount to as much as $9 billion annually for the industry, of which the three companies involved in the Southern California...

The Ralphs supermarket chain has been secretly asking, and in some cases coercing, locked-out clerks to come back to work since the beginning of the 82-day grocery dispute, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday by the grocery workers union. Saying they have proof, including a paycheck issued to a 4-month-old baby, United Food and Commercial Workes union officials allege that Ralphs is rehiring union members under false names and Social Security numbers. The alleged activities by Ralphs violate several state and federal laws, including at least four sections of the California Labor Code, according to the lawsuit filed in Los...

LOS ANGELES – Labor talks broke off Friday night between negotiators for three supermarket operators and their grocery workers' union, after resuming for just one day. No new talks to end the 10-week old strike-lockout were scheduled. "The union did present their first comprehensive proposal," said Terry O'Neil, spokesman for Kroger Co.'s Ralphs chain. "It was not much more than what they had been talking about at the beginning of the negotiations." O'Neil said he did not have details on the proposal. Union spokeswoman Ellen Andreder called the proposal "more than fair," adding, "We have proposed reasonable solutions to their...

To keep its warehouses stocked and its delivery trucks running without the Teamsters union, Ralphs Grocery Co. has turned to a convicted felon with a history of legal woes. Clifford L. Nuckols, a veteran of the strikebreaking business, has hired hundreds of people and brought them from around the country to the Los Angeles area, where the supermarket strike and lockout are in their tenth week. Booked two to a room at hotels in Burbank and Compton, the replacement workers are packed every day into rented vans and driven past pickets from the United Food and Commercial Workers union and...

Attorney General Bill Lockyer said yesterday that he is investigating whether three major grocery chains violated antitrust laws by agreeing to share revenue during their dispute with 70,000 Southern California workers. The chains – Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons – have been subpoenaed to hand over documents related to the pact, including communications such as e-mail. "Such an agreement could violate state and federal antitrust statutes, as well as California law prohibiting unfair business practices," Lockyer's office said in a statement yesterday. The chains entered into the revenue-sharing agreement, the details of which have not been made public, before beginning negotiations...

At 1:30 AM KFI radio announced, during their newscast, that Jesse Jackson was going to make an appearance at an Albertson's store in Fullerton. There are two Albertson's in Fullerton, one at Orangethorpe and Euclid and the other on Malvern Ave. west of Bastanchury. The news story did not specify which store Jackson was going to appear at. Nor did they give a time. I will post more information when I become aware of it.

2 pickets face charges in attack Grocery employee struck with ball bat By Onell R. Soto UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER October 22, 2003 \ CHULA VISTA – Two locked-out supermarket union members are facing charges in the beating of a replacement worker with a baseball bat last week. Simon Jose Thompson, 33, and Charles Matthew Olvera, 27, both of Chula Vista, remained in jail yesterday on suspicion of assault and conspiracy, California Highway Patrol spokesman Mark Gregg said. A prosecutor said a formal decision on charges is expected today. The 27-year-old replacement worker had just left the Ralphs supermarket on...

(the picketed Vons, then got locked out of Ralphs and Albertsons!) Grocery Clerks in California Go on Strike By PAUL CHAVEZ Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP)--More than 70,000 grocery clerks at three supermarket chains in Southern California went on strike late Saturday after negotiations between union representatives and grocery store officials broke off. Both sides failed to reach a compromise over several key issues, including proposed changes by the companies to the scope and cost of employees' health care coverage. Clerks at Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Albertsons grocery stores voted to reject the last contract offer...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - More than 70,000 grocery clerks at three supermarket chains in Southern California went on strike late Saturday after negotiations between union representatives and grocery store officials broke off. Both sides failed to reach a compromise over several key issues, including proposed changes by the companies to the scope and cost of employees' health care coverage. Clerks at Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Albertsons grocery stores voted to reject the last contract offer and authorized a Saturday walkout, if an accord could not be reached. Grocery workers began picketing outside Vons stores Saturday night, said...