Vons workers across California, along with their fellow unionists at Pavilions stores, stopped work October 11, rejecting the grocery chains’ demand for $1 billion in health-care cuts, a wage freeze, and a two-tier wage structure. The next day Ralphs and Albertsons bosses locked out union members. A total of 70,000 workers are involved in the fight at 850 stores. Picketing has resumed at Ralphs after being suspended by union leaders as a “good faith gesture” at the end of October.

Evans said that strikers now receive weekly strike benefits of $125—half of what they were getting at the onset of the fight. Most strikers also had their medical coverage under the contract cut January 1.

Picket Francisco Diaz, a Vons worker for 16 years, said that 23 of the 100 workers at the store had returned to work. “We are not happy about the line crossers,” he said.

The strikers got a shot in the arm January 20 when the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) pledged to raise $1 million through a dues increase to go to a health-care fund for the grocery workers. ILWU Local 13 president Joe Donato called on “every union in California and across the country” to help raise funds.

AFL-CIO leaders said in a January press release that the “labor movement will extend nationwide its efforts to hold the line for affordable healthcare in its fight with grocery chains in Southern California.” The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, has called a “Day of Solidarity, Massive March and Rally” for January 31.

Meanwhile, the bosses remain intransigent around their demands. At recent talks, they turned down an offer by union negotiators to cut benefits by $350 million.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home