One Day Longer, One Day Stronger – Supermarket workers waged fight against enormous odds


By Jim Smith

From October 11 until February 28, 59,000 supermarket workers stood up for their rights against three multi-billion-dollar corporations. After four and a half months, with their strike benefits down to barely $100 a week and no health care, they reluctantly agreed to a new contract that allows Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons to hire new employees at low wages and inadequate benefits.


The Vons strikers, and locked-out workers from Ralphs and Albertsons, turned out for contract ratification meetings the last week of February, still full of fight, but literally out of gas. The corporations had lost half a billion dollars but were still reaping profits from other parts of the country, and ironically, from Ralphs - where the union had unwisely withdrawn its picketlines - and from other businesses they own, including Food for Less and Sav-On. At that meeting, they looked to me as if they would have fought on another four months - or longer - if they just had the resources.

Not only strikers, but customers stayed strong. When strikers were introduced to 300 people at the Venice Town Hall on Feb. 26 - just days before the end of the strike - they received the loudest cheers and applause of the evening.

Such a long and noble battle, and on the surface, so little to show for it. “These were the times that try men’s (and women’s) souls,” as Thomas Paine said in 1776. And this struggle, like that one so long ago will ultimately end in victory. A fight for justice and freedom from tyranny are common factors in both cases. Steve Burd, CEO of Safeway, and the other economic royalists have inadvertently taught thousands of workers how to struggle and resist. That lesson will not soon be forgotten.

In post-mortems on the strike, writers in the LA Weekly and other publications have implied that the strike was in vain and it was lost because of the ineptitude of the union leaders. The Weekly article quotes a UCLA management professor as saying, “I don’t think it can be read any other way than a defeat for the union. I suppose it could have been worse.” His comments are typical of the many Monday morning quarterbacks who see the whole thing as a union screw-up.

One wonders where these pundits have been for the past 20 years? Unions have been getting pummeled ever since that American Idol, Ronald Reagan, put the full weight of the U.S. government behind breaking a strike of the air traffic controllers union, PATCO. Since PATCO, every corporation, large or small has been getting on the anti-union bandwagon. An entire industry of professional union-busting consultants thrives in this land of the free.

Most unions have been intimidated into not striking, but meekly accepting whatever sadistic “final offer” management has cooked up. Most of those who dared to strike were smeared before they got off the line of scrimmage. Supermarket workers, who haven’t struck since the 70s, stayed out, and stayed strong for weeks. They can take pride in the fact that the strike ended in an orderly retreat, not a rout, in spite of the overwhelming strength of their opponents.

Sure there were problems with the union leadership. Most UFCW union officials weren’t around the last time they had to strike. Some of them should follow the lead of their international president, Doug Dority, and go quietly into retirement. But other union leaders and staff were relentless in organizing the strike and boosting striker morale. In our area, Local 1442, was a leader in holding rallies, and engaging in civil disobedience and other non-traditional tactics. Since they broke ranks in the 70s to endorse Tom Hayden and got involved in leftwing Santa Monica politics, Local 1442 has had a reputation in UFCW as being more progressive than the rest of the pack, and in this strike, more aggressive. Elected leaders Mike Straeter and Richard Cowan, staff members like Jesse Gonzales, picket captains like Venice’s own DeDe McCreary, and thousands of strikers gave their all in this historic struggle. They weren’t out-classed, they were out-gunned.

It was Southern California strikers against nationwide corporations. When attempts were made to spread the pickets to Northern California, some unions up there complained that a boycott could cost them jobs. The obvious solution is a nationwide contract so that everyone can go on strike, if necessary, at the same time. But, easier said than done. The supermarket corporations will fight even harder to prevent that from happening.

There is a solution, however. This strike would never have happened in most countries where health care is not tied to a job or a union contract.

In Canada for instance, there is single-payer health care that covers everyone regardless of where they work, if they work. Union friends in Canada laugh when I describe the hard bargaining over medical benefits that is part of almost every U.S. union contract negotiation. The Washington Post reported recently that for each mid-size car DaimlerChrysler builds at one of its U.S. plants, the company pays about $1,300 to cover employee health care costs. When it builds an identical car across the border in Canada, the health care cost is negligible.

Likewise for the two-tier, low-wage provision that the union got stuck with. If the minimum wage was a livable wage, corporate competition wouldn’t be based on who can pay the lowest wage. Wal-Mart would be a non-issue. And while it wasn’t an issue in this strike battle, I want to point out that most civilized countries also required a minimum vacation by law. Four weeks is the minimum that employers can give in France. In some other countries, it’s five or six weeks. They have a funny idea that there’s more to life than just working.

So how do we get laws in California and the U.S. that are like those in the civilized world? Well, perhaps it’s time for a boycott on election day of all those politicians who won’t sign on to health care for all, doubling the minimum wage and making everyone’s life a lot better, even if it costs the corporations a pretty penny in taxes.

Posted: Mon - March 1, 2004 at 05:54 PM          

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