N O R T H C O A S T T IM E S E A G L E , MA Y/JUNE 2004
PAGE 5
THE FIGHT FOR
FOOD & HEALTH
CARE: WHO LOSES
AND WHO WINS;
AND WHAT IS THE
PRICE OF A SMILE?
BY BARBARA DARBY
LINDA BLECK
It was the beginning of October and massive fires,
Thanksgiving and Christmas were their backdrop as the mostly
women and Hispanics fought for their livelihoods and families
against the mighty grocery conglomerates of Safeway, Kroger
and Albertson's. Their foe would not relent and dictated its terms
relentlessly. The meager $100 per week income, from an ever
dwindling union strike fund, was unable to sustain them as they
walked needing shoes and hoping they could at least buy their
children an ice cream. When outsiders finally came to their aid
in January, many had lost their homes and most were unable to
pay for their own health insurance. They walked on because
they had nothing left to lose as each one leaned on the other to
avoid defeat and give in, to go to work for someone else who
would devour their spirits, pride and sense of selves even more.
Seventy thousand southern California grocery workers
started their strike on October 11, 2003; they prepared to return
to work March 1, 2004 after the longest grocery strike in history.
They had voted to ratify a three-year contract that saved most
of their former benefits and wages but gave lowered wages
and benefits for newly hired personnel. They also made future
concessions to their employers that made them assume part
of the cost of their health care coverage.
The industry’s goal is to bring its health care costs more
in line with those o f nonunion Wal-Mart stores Inc. The retail
giant’s medical plan covers less than half o f its workers, and its
sales clerks earn less, on average, than the federal poverty line.
This was the goal of Safeway CEO Steven A. Burd, who led the
campaign against the strikers and wanted in the beginning to cut
their medical benefits by two-thirds.
“All I want is medical insurance to take care of my bdby?
Is that so much to ask?" said Cynthia Hernandez, 27, a Safeway
striker and single mother.1
Some think Burd, leader of the of corporate attack
against the workers, will be locked out of his job soon, but I am
sure he will leave much better cared for than those he fought
so hard to kick even lower on the bottom rungs of their ladder.
Some Safeway executives defend Burd; he is responsible for
requiring all Safeway employees to smile at you and read your
name off your receipt at the end of your visit to their stores.
Other executives left their jobs to escape association with Burd’s
tactics that opened them to lawsuits when he was selected to
bargain for all the conglomerate grocers involved. He is also
mostly responsible for leading Safeway to stock losses of more
than $700 million, a fact that caused even Wall Street brokers to
at least give verbal support to the striking workers.
In Oregon, “labor leaders asked Oregon state pension
fund officials to use their financial leverage to pressure Safeway
over its management practices. The ‘state’ pension fund owns
598,000 shares of the company.2 (California state pension funds
also invest heavily in Safeway stock.) Still others said it made
no sense to fight against strikers because turnover rates among
grocery workers were so great that future hires could be made to
burden the changes.3 In the end that is exactly what happened,
but the losses for future workers would have been higher if not
for the efforts of the striking workers.
The striking workers who returned to work will make up
their five months loss in wages with the same pay and benefits
they had when they left and will be forced to negotiate another
contract in three years. New hires will receive less.
“...the union has, in effect, sold out its next generation
of membership," Edmond Jacoby wrote in the North County
Times (Escondido, Calif.) “The second tier workers will become
members of the UFCW, but they will be second-class members,
workers who get less pay for the same work, who take years
longer to climb the wage ladder, and who will be covered by a
benefits package that will cost them more to use and for which
they must work much longer to qualify. Also losing are pension
ers whose health insurance also becomes costlier. In fact, even
though they will pay no premiums for at least two years, current
employees will find their health care costs going up thanks to a
doubling or more-than-doubling of the co-pay provisions."
So, did the workers who picketed for those almost five
long and hungry months gain anything for American workers as
a whole? Grocery workers in Colorado and northern California
began negotiating their new contract with the same Safeway,
Kroger’s and Albertson stores at the end of March. Workers
in other states will need to enter negotiations with these giant
want-to-be Wal-Marts also. I asked a long-time Astoria Safeway
employee if they had a new contract. He didn’t know. He did
know, however, that the California strike was over and top
workers’ wages were less than those offered long-term employ
ees here. He also noted that Portland Safeway employees
receive higher wages than the approximate high of $14 an hour
received in Astoria and workers in Oregon are also concerned
about losing health care benefits.
In fact, new hires in southern California will receive a
maximum opportunity to receive $14 an hour and be hired for
an as yet undisclosed lesser amount Long-term employees
can earn up to $17 an hour there. However, the cost of living
is much higher in California than here in Astoria.
An optimist could list several reasons that this strike
might be another turn around for American workers as a whole.
Costco, a grocery retailer whose union benefited by increased
membership during the strike, recently settled with its employ
ees; Costco workers settled for a cut in pay so their benefits
would be left intact. Negotiators were praised and overall
feelings were high about this outcome that failed to demean
Costco employees. Safeway, Kroger and Albertson’s executives
may tread more lightly on workers who endured so much to win
at least some concessions during their lengthy strike.
Industry giants might reflect on how much they lost in
profits and public opinion as a result of the strike * The strike
garnered the support of a large base on concerned Americans
in a cross section of income levels The strike received attention
when corporate shareholders became concerned about currency
losses and prevailed upon the industry to settle with employees.
The strikers received the support of larger unions along with
grocery workers who walked picket lines at Safeways in other
parts of the nation.
Daniel B Wood wrote in an article for the Christian
Science Monitor, “Because of other unions' moves to support
the grocery workers (in Los Angeles), some labor analysts see
a rebirth of labor solidarity, one that could bolster organized
labor nationwide and change how strikes are waged They cite
the recent move, by 8,000 Teamsters to honor the picket lines
and abandon distribution centers and delivery routes to 860
stores. The International Longshore & Warehousemen’s Union
pulled 3,000 members off docks in Los Angeles and San Pedro
to hold a meeting in front of a grocery that had locked out its
employees.** ‘Union solidarity hasn’t been seen on this scale
for quite awhile,' writes Harley Shaiken, a UC Berkeley professor
specializing in labor and global economy."4
The striking grocery workers' union received attention
from religious leaders as well who helped apply tactics of moral
philosophy to end the strike for the benefit of strikers and for the
larger purpose of countering corporate greed that compromises
the vitality of American workers.
“It is the poorest and the downtrodden who need our
voice, so we are taking an active stand on their behalf,” said
Rabbi Steven Jacobs, one of the participants in the cross-
California “Justice Pilgrimage." Along with 50 grocery store
workers, two dozen Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Jewish,
Presbyterian and Lutheran clerics boarded a bus for an 8-hour,
multistop journey to the East Bay home of Safeway CEO Steve
Burd. Once there, they joined a contingent of 200 protesters
and marched to Mr. Burd's palatial estate, where they delivered
10,000 letters appealing to him to resume negotiations in the
deadlocked strike. “Organizers know it is a way to win the public
over by showing how such leaders are living in luxury while their
workers can’t make ends meet," Rabbi Jacobs said. These shift
ing tactics are helping to bring support back to the unions.5
Media coverage of this event in California put yet
another light on incongruities in American society. Do we need
to wait for the future — hope that the upper class of Americans
will lend aid to alleviate the injustices reaped by their practices
and help lift the burdens workers experience? Past experience
shows us that this is only accomplished when workers demand
more for their needs. This solidarity can only come if they truly
work together and avoid issues that media and politicians use to
divide them. These things: color, ethnic group, gender, pro-life
and pro-choice, and now gay marriage are exploited to crush the
needs they all share, a living wage and health benefits.
Can workers all speak together against a society that
goes to war to settle the atrocities of other nations while large
sectors of our own society are left hungry, without housing and
medical care? This “lower" class of workers is growing larger
as jobs are outsourced and health care is a given only when the
rich can profit.
It will take all workers to demand and act for change in
a society that will not change unless we lean and hold onto each
another in support just like the grocery workers and their friends
in southern California. All citizens must come together, all union
workers and nonunion workers, clergy, Wall Street executives,
and the rich who reap and stockpile the profits. It is time for
American workers to receive more for a smile
Barbara Darby lives in Astoria
ANCHOR
* Wal-Mart lost an initiative election it sponsored in April
that would have exempted it from all zoning laws in Inglewood,
California The vote was 60% to 40%
**The ILWU was locked off West Coast docks in a 2002
strike
1 March 1, 2004 article for Business Week by Ronald Grover and
Louise Lee ("Will Safeway s CEO Get Locked Out")
2 January 31, 2004 article for The Oregonian by Brent Hunsberger and
Michael Liedtke ("Safeway Protest Hits Portland as Chief Executive
Draws Fire").
3 March 1, 2004 article in Business Week
4 "A Strike That's Struck A Chord Nationwide (December 11, 2003)
5 Daniel B Wood, ibid
GRAPHICS
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