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NEWS & LETTERS, April 2004UFCW defeat clouds next grocery pactsOakland, Cal.--The defeat of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) in Los Angeles couldn’t have come at a worse time. Grocery workers in Southern California settled for a contract which introduces a second tier of low-paid workers. Everyone feels the low-tier wages will be used to undermine older workers’ job security. The contract also puts health care co-payment burdens on workers. With employers winning such a major reduction in labor costs, in effect Wal-Mart has arrived at Safeway--and threatens to spread to every other major grocery outlet, union or not. This will undermine contract battles coming up for grocery workers and other workers everywhere, in the same way the Teamsters’ Union undermined the grocery workers when they suddenly withdrew picket support. In May, the precedent here could undermine UFCW efforts in Seattle. In September, contracts are up here in Northern California and in Denver and Las Vegas. Meanwhile, workers in Arizona and Indiana who stayed on the job and continued to bargain after their contracts expired will have a tougher time turning away concessions. At the Safeway in Oakland near where I work, some of the stockers and shelvers on the night shift seemed dejected. They felt that "whatever they got down there is coming up here. And they got a lot worse than before the strike started." One angry young worker insisted, "It was the pickets, plain and simple. We couldn’t hold the picket line. It was too weak. The union didn’t support our own picket line. People then started to cross when it got too painful." The California Attorney General had brought a lawsuit against grocery chains for possible anti-trust violations when the employers embarked on a revenue sharing scheme during the strike. But one worker said, "Forget about it. He’s already dropping the suit. They got away scot-free. Sure they cheated, but it’s all legal. You don’t win strikes in the courts." Many workers couldn’t believe that UFCW President Dority continues to call the strike a success. Some workers felt that the long, arduous, four-and-a-half-month struggle was an object lesson in the importance of solidarity, organization, mutual financial support and standing one’s ground. Unfortunately, it was the employers who learned that lesson this time around--not our own union leaders. They were too busy lobbying politicians. --Htun Lin |
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