The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 68/No. 6           February 16, 2004  
 
 
15,000 rally in L.A. to back
striking grocery workers
 
BY JAMES VINCENT  
INGLEWOOD, California—Chanting “Don’t Shop at Albertsons, Vons or Ralphs,” thousands of grocery workers kicked off a march here January 31 in support of their strike, now in its fourth month. They were followed by dozens of union contingents demonstrating their solidarity.

Altogether 70,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union are on strike or locked out at 850 stores in Southern California. The fight began with the union’s rejection of grocery chains’ takeback demands, which include health-care cuts, a wage freeze, and lower wages and benefits for new hires. Talks on these issues remain deadlocked.

“Lately we’ve been dumped on so it’s great to see all this support,” said Judy Starr, a locked-out Ralphs worker. An estimated 15,000 strikers and supporters took part in the action, called by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. They assembled in the Great Western Forum before marching to a nearby Vons outlet. Many of the union contingents carried banners. “Your Fight is Our Fight” rang out from hundreds of members of the Laborers International Union. The drill team of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 from San Francisco led 500 union members from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Other union contingents came from the Service Employees International Union, United Farm Workers, and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees. Unions of machinists, teachers, Teamsters, nurses, iron and oil workers, construction workers, and actors and entertainers were among those represented. A labor solidarity organization of students marched from UCLA.

The bosses are attacking “not just grocery workers—all of us are targets. We are here to bring solidarity,” said Ricardo Laparra, a member of the Laborers union.

The big-business press has ratcheted up their propaganda against the strikers, with the Los Angeles Times leading the way. One article attacked the UFCW leadership for being “scandalously overpaid.” A January 13 editorial stated that the union’s defense of health care “wasn’t a smart tactic in an age when every company is grappling with escalating costs.”

Meanwhile, UFCW members in Northern California are preparing for a similar confrontation when their contracts, covering 50,000 grocery workers, expire in July and September. Members of UFCW Local 839, which covers Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties, voted by an 81 percent margin at the end of January to increase their dues to build up a strike fund.  
 
 
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