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NEWS & LETTERS, January-February 2004On the line: L.A. supermarket strikeLos Angeles--Today it looks bad for the strikers and the UFCW against the three supermarket chains in Southern California. Today the unions are very low on funds. They have cut picket duty pay from $40 a day to $20 a day, and many picketers have quit picketing. The day after the UFCW announced a strike against Vons, management at Ralphs and Albertson locked out their workers. It was obviously a pre-planned strategy among the Big 3 supermarket chains. Thus, union funds to pay picketers were being depleted three times as fast. COMPANIES RESORT TO SCABS When the union decided to lift the picket lines from Ralphs, there was grumbling among workers that it went against their interests. It was soon discovered that, according to a prior agreement, stores that were not being picketed would share their revenues with the stores still being picketed. Today, contrary to a month ago, there are very few picketers or none at all at the Sunset/Virgil and 3rd/Vermont Vons, although the parking lots are still nearly empty. Vons has been using bargain sales to keep customers crossing the picket lines, although most walk out with only a few items. Some apologize for shopping, and use various excuses. THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reported that union spies have stated that 50 to 100 union workers have scabbed and gone to work. On management’s recommendation, they have used the social security numbers of relatives to evade detection. It has been reported that 30,000 replacement workers are in place. A Vons worker stated that many workers who crossed were fired after a single mistake. She said they should not have crossed. I recall a young Black man who stocked shelves saying, "I need to get a job.” He mentioned the cut in picket duty pay from $40 a day to $20. At the beginning Teamster truck drivers supported the strikers by not delivering goods. But they soon caved in when management brought in a strike-breaking company, I witnessed two deliveries made by scabs, and there was nothing the picketers could do. CAN STRIKE BE TURNED AROUND? During the U.S. Civil War, when the South was winning, Karl Marx said that one Black regiment in the Union Army would have a potent effect on Southern nerves and turn the war around. If theory grows from practice and we know of the actual development of events since the grocery strike began last Oct. 11, what then can we deduce from the strike? And is it still possible to turn the strike around in favor of the workers? --Basho |
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