Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Carpenters Union, Service Employees International Union, and the Teamsters union joined the action in solidarity with the striking and locked-out workers, who are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW).

Ten days earlier Safeway strikers from Los Angeles had joined a spirited crowd of 1,000 people at San Francisco’s Union Square for a rally organized by the AFL-CIO and Jobs with Justice, a coalition of labor and community organizations. The action marked UN Human Rights Day. The strikers led the crowd in chants of “Don’t shop at Safeway!”

At the time of the rally some 70,000 workers in Los Angeles and surrounding areas had been on strike or locked out for two months—a battle that is gaining solidarity in this Northern California city.  
 
Fighting against health-care cuts
The fight began October 11, when UFCW members in Los Angeles rejected the takeback contract offer put forward by the Vons and Pavilions grocery stores, both of which are owned by Safeway Inc. The following day the bosses at Ralphs stores—owned by Krogers—and Albertsons made common cause with the Safeway bosses by locking out their workforce. All the striking and locked-out workers are covered by the same contract.

Workers visiting San Francisco to build solidarity with their strike explain that the companies’ contract proposal includes a number of direct attacks. The bosses propose no wage increases until October 2005, big cuts in health benefits, and union-weakening changes in work rules. They also demand the right to outsource work to nonunion companies.

Since the beginning of November striking grocery workers have set up pickets seven days a week at four Safeway store locations in San Francisco, and at many others throughout the Bay Area. Striking and locked-out workers arrive every two weeks from Los Angeles to reinforce these picket lines.

“When we were kids my parents would never buy grapes when the farm workers were fighting for their rights,” one of the pickets told the Militant. She was referring to the strikes and consumer boycotts in the 1960s organized by immigrant farm workers during their fight to build a union and wrest contracts off California grape and lettuce growers.

As the worker spoke, a woman passing by assured the strikers that she would honor their picket line. “I’m just going to Wells Fargo,” she said. “I won’t shop at Safeway.”

Workers identify the bosses’ drive to make them pay more for health coverage as the central issue in the dispute. Speaking at a December 12 Militant Labor Forum on the fight, picket captain Helen Holgun said, “The company wants us to pay without a cap so it could be $20 this week and $40-$50 the next one, with workers at their mercy. They want a two-tier system of wages and benefits for new hires, which will create a lot of friction. New hires would have to wait 37 months before receiving health benefits.”

Isidro Núñez, who has worked for Vons for 13 years, also spoke at the meeting. “I left my family in Los Angeles to fight for health care for them,” he said. “Our last strike was 25 years ago. Many of us won’t have medical insurance as of December 31. But we’re 70,000 strong in Southern California and this will set an example for others. It’s corporate greed versus human need.

“We hope this doesn’t happen to San Francisco come July when the contracts are up here. We need to stick together, stay united,” he said.

The strikers have won increasing support from other unions. Carlos Serrano, a striker who has worked at Vons for 25 years, told the forum that teachers union members in Pasadena and Los Angeles area help staff the picket lines on their weekend days off.

“I have seven family members in the industry,” said Serrano. “One crossed the line. I’ll never cross the line.”

He reported that of the 98 workers at the Vons store in the Southern California city of Glendale, where he works, only two have crossed.  
 
 
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