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Local supermarket workers strike

The United Food and Commercial Workers picket Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons stores throughout Southern California on Tuesday. The strike came as contract talks broke down over the issue of medical benefits for workers. The parking lot was empty at the local Vons on Foothill Boulevard and White Avenue, as picketers greeted shoppers at the entrance to the store. / photo by Adam Omernik
The United Food and Commercial Workers picket Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons stores throughout Southern California on Tuesday. The strike came as contract talks broke down over the issue of medical benefits for workers. The parking lot was empty at the local Vons on Foothill Boulevard and White Avenue, as picketers greeted shoppers at the entrance to the store. / photo by Adam Omernik

by Alejandra Molina
Staff Writer

Since Saturday morning, Wade Greenwald has been outside the local Vons store on Foothill Boulevard in La Verne working the picket line with his former co-workers to preserve their health-care benefits.

“This is my livelihood right now,” Greenwald said. “This is my bread on my table, it’s what helps me and my wife pay for food on our table.”

Greenwald, a grocery manager, has been with the business for seven years.

“I work hard for a living, this is what is right,” he said.

The work stoppage entered its fifth day Wednesday, affecting 859 stores in Southern California and roughly 70,000 United Field and Commercial Works Union members. These corporations, with growing profits control more than half of Los Angeles area supermarkets. Corporate managers demanded that workers take a 50 percent cut in their health insurance and retirement benefits. Also, an increase in out-of-pocket prescription drug costs has been added to the demand.

“We make corporate money,” Greenwald said. “Why can’t we at least get healthcare.”

Because of these demands, more than 95 percent of UFCW workers went on strike starting last weekend.

“Why should the rich get richer?” Greenwald said as he was encouraging people to shop at Stater Brothers, one of the local supermarket chains not involved in the dispute.

Employer-sponsored health care costs increased 13.9 percent between the spring seasons of 2002-2003, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Education Trust.

“We feel that it is important for us to continue to set the standard for what kinds of benefits working people should receive,” said Heather Golden, who works for the UFCW and came from Seattle to support the Southern California strikers.

“The strike is very important for working people across our nation,” she said.

Lilly Cuevas, a temporary worker at the Vons in Foothill thinks otherwise: “I don’t agree with the health benefits they’re asking for,” she said. “Nobody gets free health care.”

Cuevas began working at Vons on Monday and gets paid $17 per hour. “It’s always slow,” Cuevas said. “A lot of people applied but there were not a lot of positions.”

“They’re taking my job and paying them $8 for standing around,” Greenwald said.

Since business has been slow, Cuevas has taken on many different responsibilities. “I do cashier and the flowers,” she said. “I do a little bit of everything.”

The work stoppage is likely to last more than a month, according to Wall Street analysts. Union members receive $300 a week for picketing, which compares with up to $17.90 per hour that some would be earning on the job.

According to a report by Smith Barney Citigroup, if the strike lasts more than 40 days, the grocers could loose up to 15 cents in per-share earnings.

But Greenwald is dedicated to the cause. “We’re out here to make a statement,” he said. “We’re fighting for the middle class.”

Alejandra Molina, LV Life Editor
Alejandra Molina
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Adam Omernik, Photography Editor
Adam Omernik
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