LA: Ralphs (Kroger), Albertsons, Vons (Safeway) Demand Huge GiveBacks from Workers

[amborin]

Grocery workers march and rally in Los Angeles over contract impasse


......The declaration featured on the UFCW local 770 web site .... “I don’t want to strike, but I will if I have to.”

The current impasse recalls the strike/lockout of 2004, when the UFCW leadership,
in the face of strong worker determination and militancy, undermined and isolated
the strikers. After 19 weeks on strike, the workers first rejected and then ultimately
accepted a concessions contract supported by the union executives. The three-year agreement
instituted a two-tier wage system, cut medical coverage and pensions and increased employee
contributions. (See, “Union surrenders benefits, wages in sellout of California grocery strike”)

The contract was hailed as a victory and a job saver by the UFCW. Within weeks, Ralphs
announced the closure of 15 stores, eventually eliminating 600 jobs.
The next contract, agreed to in 2007, included a paltry increase in pay, a modest shortening
of the waiting period for healthcare eligibility and a supposed end to the two-tier system.
However, the former second-tier workers had to—and still must—wait longer for health coverage and raises than first-tier workers.

This time around, the chains are demanding further givebacks in healthcare and retirement. According to the Los Angeles Times article, “the new payments could be as high as 50% of workers’ take-home pay, the union said.”



http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/groc-j22.shtml

[msongs]

1. we don't shop those stores anyway lol nt

[senseandsensibility]

2. LOL?

Not getting the humor. K and R for the workers.

[Sherman A1]

7. Agreed

I don't get the humor at all and find the comment to be repulsive.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. This is funny exactly how?

[musette_sf]

15. I sort of think the poster actually meant to say by "LOL" was

"as if I would ever have shopped in such crappy stores that treat their employees like crap ANYWAY".

Because that's how I feel, too. Hate Albertsons, hate Safeway, and hated Kroger back when it was an option for me.

Sheesh, Safeway doesn't even carry decent meat. "Safeway Select" doesn't mean it's some kind of specially selected meat - it means it's not Prime and it's not Choice. It's Select, " lowest grade commonly sold at retail, acceptable quality, but is less juicy and tender due to leanness."

These stores sell you crap to eat and they treat their employees like crap.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. And they still treat their workers better

since they have a UNION... than oh WALLY MART.

I chose to shop at Union Stores... that includes yes... Ralphs.

[Raine]

8. So you don't care, huh???

Well it might be important to the workers, I'm sure they don't find it so "lol". Geesh! x(

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. They strike I will NOT cross the line

[Kurovski]

5. K&R. Kroger is "Food4Less" around here.

And Dominick's is "Safeway"

[DJ13]

10. Kroger is both Food4Less and FoodCo here

[amborin]

11. yes, and in 2004 Food4Less had a separate contract, don't know if they still do or not

[MsLeopard]

6. 50 percent of take home pay for HC!

Holy canolli!! We have to do something about healthcare, it's a complete travesty our current system of "fleece the peasants" survives as it does. No other first world country on the planet treats it's people this way.

[indepat]

13. Ain't having a far RW-agenda being fully implemented making Amurika

such a wonnerful place to live, work, and raise a family? :patriot:

[socialist_n_TN]

9. They strike, I won't cross a picket line..........

I've got a choice in my little neighborhood of Kroger or Walmart. Geez how's that for a choice? My wife just reminded me that she thought she had read where Kroger had it's best quarter ever profitwise and now they're trying to take AWAY money from the workers???

[Raine]

12. If they strike I won't cross the picket line, I didn't before

and I'll do the same this time.

[amborin]

14. Labor Notes: HCR Offers No Relief to Unions;

Romney, Obama Health Care Reforms Offer No Relief for Unions

Don Trementozzi, Steve Early | June 22, 2011Login or register to post comments
When union members were encouraged to support the health care bills passed in Massachusetts in 2006
and by Congress last year, they were told there’d be less health care cost-shifting from employers onto employees.

Unfortunately, President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has the same bipartisan
flaws as the Massachusetts plan it was modeled after, the brainchild of then-Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican.

Both plans created a greatly enlarged (and publicly subsidized) market
for private insurers—whose role remains costly, wasteful, and completely unnecessary, not to mention detrimental to controlling costs.

snip

Management continues to set the terms of medical coverage for most workers,
unilaterally if non-union, and subject to negotiations if not. Employers remain
free to offer unaffordable insurance or to drop coverage, with little penalty.

One test case in the private sector is underway. Contract bargaining at telecom giant Verizon
kicked off today in New York, as hundreds of members of the Communications Workers (CWA)
rallied outside company headquarters to demand that management pull back from plans to
saddle them with the rising cost of health care.

CADILLAC DEMONS
During the debate in Congress last year, Obama and leading Democrats demonized the “Cadillac coverage”
negotiated by unions on the grounds that it encourages over-use of medical services.
So Congress created a 40 percent excise tax, starting in 2018, that will apply to more expensive plans.

“Instead of setting a new, higher standard,” noted labor journalist Roger Bybee, the law “effectively
serves to reinforce a new lower standard of ‘acceptable’ coverage.”

Organized labor tried, but failed, to get this tax eliminated. Instead, it was only postponed and the
threshold amounts were raised.

Pro-labor health care experts warned that the tax would give employers an even greater incentive
to curtail benefits and shift costs to millions of workers, as they attempt to keep premiums
below the tax threshold—$27,500 a year for family coverage.

snip

more:

http://labornotes.org/2011/06/romney-obama-health-care-reforms-offer-no-relief-unions

[LooseWilly]

16. And I thought the 2004 strike had been a success...

I guess I accidentally swallowed the union leadership's line... can't believe they pushed capitulation despite rank and file militancy.

I can find food in some local markets if a strike is on...

[amborin]

19. the corporations colluded then, too;

[LooseWilly]

26. I don't doubt it... but the Safeway strike in support of Vons seemed to turn things...

Or so the employees I talked to seemed to think. Sucks to that... I thought they'd won over management, not been sold out by their own reps... another myth imploded by cold hard facts.

[coalition_unwilling]

18. I'm surprised the WSWS.org bashers have not yet shown up. Back

in 2004, I walked the picket line 2 hours every night for 6 months at my local Vons (Safeway) with the UFCW Local 1442. I personally witnessed rank and file union members, many of whom faced severe hardship, faithfully man picket lines every day only to be sold out by their leadership. For what the strike was settled for, they might as well not have gone on strike in the first place.

Can't remember the name of the UFCW President at the time but he was pretty well off, IIRC. The local I walked with was not real happy about the way its leadership conducted itself.

Wife, stepdaughter and I shopped at Gelsen's for the duration. It was a bit more expensive but had reached a separate collective bargaining agreement with the UFCW. Not sure what we will do this time as we now live a long way from any Gelsen's.

[amborin]

20. that's great you offered that support! sad they got the two-tier anyway; wasn't the international

leadership the culprit, not local (as is so often the case)

[coalition_unwilling]

31. I think the strike in 2004 was only in California, IIRC. It was the

SoCal leadership that caved, selling out its rank and file.

Rick Icaza, President of Local 770, is the one I most associate with the craven cave-in. However, before the strike began, the national AFL-CIO (led, at the time I think, by Trumka) had signed on in a major way also. But this is all inside baseball (not my strong suit) and I just remember how disillusioned the members of my local VONS were at the way the 2004 strike progressed.

[socialist_n_TN]

21. The leadership of bourgeoisie trade unions need

to be under a microscope by the membership at all times. They are PART of the bourgeoisie and as such they will ALWAYS eventually side with the system to the detriment of their membership, IF THEY ARE NOT HELD RESPONSIBLE BY THE MEMBERSHIP.

Just something to ALWAYS remember about trade unionism.

BTW, I'm surprised the Norquist Brigade hasn't shown up yet to bitch about a wsws story too. Give it time.

[amborin]

22. culprit here was the international leadership,

not the militant local leadership, as is so often the case

hope people realize that US unions have lots of outstanding pro-labor local leaders who fight for workers' rights; the internationals, however, tend to cozy up, as you remarked, and double cross the locals, time and again

amazing this has gotten past the anti-wsws brigade

[socialist_n_TN]

27. OH yeah. The higher up in the labor aristocracy you are

the more invested you are in the system and the less invested you are in the actual workers you're supposed to represent.

I was actually just making more of a general statement about trade unions in general and, of course, about their leadership. The higher you go in the aristocracy, they more isolated you become from where you came from, i.e., the workers themselves.

[amborin]

29. totally agree!

but this harks back to the classic internecine dispute over reform vs. revolution

and while we're waiting.....

but there are excellent, pro-worker radical union locals; and unions are workers' best chance

[socialist_n_TN]

32. Why yes, yes it does...........

:) I know which side I come down on. Elections haven't made ANY positive difference for the working class since...? Maybe ever. The BEST that elections have done is SLOW the bleeding a little bit.

[Dawson Leery]

23. Kroger, Albertsons, and Safeway are the most expensive supermarkets

in the nation. These bastards are demanding their employees take less than the meager benefits they already receive! :argh:

[Kurovski]

28. Kroger is not, not here anyway.

Safeway's Dominick's is the pricey one around here.

[applegrove]

24. I had a pal who worked the overnight shift at a grocery store 10 years ago. The corporations were

claiming that they were not making any money and they had to give up his union. I was like no, no, no don't do it they are lying! But he wouldn't believe me.

[trackfan]

25. I never crossed the picket line last time.

The strike ran into Thanksgiving season, or some other big holiday, and I had to get goods for a large party, but I managed by going to several different stores.

[Codeine]

30. damn. I'll be shopping Stater's again.

They tend to pledge to agree to whatever gets negotiated in advance and thus avoid having their employees strike, then they get all the business of people like me, who won't cross a picket line ever.

[senseandsensibility]

33. kick for those that haven't seen it

eom