[progchat_action] An Injury to One is an Injury to All

California Grocery Workers Strike: The Wal-Mart Distraction To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

November 12, 2003 The California Grocery Workers Strike The Wal-Mart
Distraction By MICHAEL SCHWARTZ

We are in the midst of the largest labor struggle since the UPS
workers went on strike in 1997. In the late evening of October 11th
a strike was called by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
against Vons and Pavilions (Safeway).

Their "competitors", Ralphs (Kroger) and Albertsons immediately
responded by locking out all of their unionized workers.

By the early morning of October 12th, 70,000 grocery workers in
Southern California were walking the picket lines. These workers
are fighting for their livelihood and they need our support. These
three multi-billion dollar supermarket chains, who are currently
crying poverty, earned over eight billion dollars in net profit in
the last five years alone. That would have been impossible without
the hundreds of thousands of workers who make their stores run.

The companies claim that since Wal-Mart is moving in to the supermarket
business they have to cut their costs in order to compete. They are
trying to divide the working class by claiming that the grocery
workers are overpaid. If we are to believe the companies it seems
every grocery worker is making about seventeen dollars an hour. But
the vast majority of grocery workers are part- time, and the average
worker is taking home about $1,300 a month. One of the main victories
these workers have won over decades of struggle is a decent health
care package.

However, the contract that has been offered by these multi-billion
dollar chains is an insult at best. The proposed contract could cut
health benefits by fifty percent, cap wages at $14.90 an hour for
new employees (after six years of service!), and even attacks the
health benefits of those who have already retired. One of the main
goals of this contract is to institute a two-tier wage system. This
would mean everyone hired under the proposed contract would be on
a different wage and benefit scale than those already working there.

Obviously, the company would then try to find any pretext needed
to fire the older workers in order to reap hundreds of millions of
dollars in added profits with their new low-wage workforce. The
goal of these companies is to institute a l! ow- wage and benefits
workforce similar to the one that exists at Wal-Mart.

But in the end this fight is about more than the grocery workers
of Southern California, it's about the working class fighting to
hold onto the gains they have won over one hundred years of struggle.
This is not a simple dispute between supermarket employees and their
employers. A line has definitely been drawn in the sand; all the
employers are on one side and all the employees are on the other.
These companies have joined together in an act of corporate solidarity.
They know which side they're on in this war; the question is which
side are we on?

Think about it, multi-billion dollar corporations who are supposed
to be in "competition" with each other have joined together to try
and crush their employees. They would rather lose tens of millions
of dollars a week in the short term in the hopes of stealing hundreds
of millions from their employees in the long term. This is not
someone else's fight; we all have a stake in it.

If the workers win it will show the employers that they can't count
on slashing wages and benefits in their never-ending demand for
higher and higher profit margins. But if the employers win, this
will have severe consequences for workers everywhere. Who will be
next on the list? Worse yet, who will fight back if it is seen as
a lost cause? Real wages have been falling in this country since
1973. In the same time period inequality has grown and corporate
profits have soared. During the "booming 90s" and in the years
since, we have witnessed startling productivity rates while wages
have either remained !

stagnant or have fallen. Recently we found out that the U.S. economy
grew at a rate of 7.2% rate for the third quarter. Yet more and
more people continue to file for unemployment. We've also seen a
net job loss for three straight years, the first time that's happened
since the Great Depression. What does it mean that the economy is
growing while jobs are being lost left and right? It shows us that
employers are squeezing more and more out of the workers who still
have jobs.

There comes a time when people will not take any more beatings,
when they dig in their heels and refuse to give another inch. That's
what we're witnessing in the grocery stores of Southern California.
This fight really could be the turning point. It could be the spark
that lights the fire, when workers across the country say "enough
is enough". Already supermarket employees across the nation are
ready to strike to keep their benefits, MTA workers in LA are on
strike, teachers in Chicago a prepared to strike, even restaurant
employees in two of the most exclusive restaurants in New Y! ork
City are on strike to keep their health benefits.

The grocery workers are not isolated; they are 70,000 representatives
of the working class who have stood up to say we're not going to
take it anymore.

They need to know that over a hundred million other workers are
standing behind them. This isn't the first time we've seen regular
working folks take the lead in fighting for basic human rights such
as health care. The eight-hour workday, the elimination of child
labor, unemployment insurance, and social security were victories
won by organized labor and we shouldn't forget that.

There are those who say that in times of economic trouble everybody
needs to give in a little. But in a country where the 400 richest
individuals are worth $955 billion dollars I think what we need is
a little bit more taking by those on the bottom.

What is needed now is some good old-fashioned solidarity. The grocery
workers need to know they are not alone. This is not their fight,
this is our fight.

Let's let them know that we believe with all of hearts in that old
labor slogan that an injury to one is an injury to all.

Michael Schwartz is an activist with the Los Angeles Strikers
Solidarity Organization and a substitute teacher in southern
California. He is also a contributor to Left Hook. He can be reached
at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]