Vol. 75/No. 36      October 10, 2011

The strikers, who maintain the giant apartment complex of 5,000 people, were joined by other Local 32BJ members from other buildings and by Dayton Beach Park residents.

“They are not treating our members fairly,” said Wayne Shawlinski, a 32BJ member and building worker in Manhattan. “They just want a 45 cents per hour raise in each year of the contract. We live from paycheck to paycheck.”

“Most of these guys have worked here a long time,” said Brian Courtney, a 35-year Dayton Beach Park resident. “Management does not want the union.”

Ray Ceballos, the strikers’ union steward who has worked at the complex for 22 years, told the rally, “We are not going anywhere. New York is a union town.”

—Dan Fein

Grocery workers in California
approve new three-year pact
LOS ANGELES—After seven months of negotiations, United Food and Commercial Workers locals throughout southern California voted September 22 to approve a three-year contract with Albertson’s, Ralphs and Von’s grocery chains. The agreement covers 62,000 baggers, checkers, meat cutters and other grocery workers.

On September 15 the union gave 72-hour notice that it would strike. The next day a tentative agreement was reached.

In August more than 90 percent of the workers rejected the bosses’ concessions demands.

Ralphs supermarket had threatened to close all its stores in the event of a strike. Von’s vowed to stay open with replacement workers and management.

Neither the vote results nor the contract provisions have been released to the press. Union members received a two-page summary of the proposal.

“I voted for the contract because we held onto our health care, Tom Hancock, a checker at Von’s, told the Militant. “The union explained that the companies agreed to contribute to the fund and that it will be solvent for the next three years.”

“As a meat cutter, I’m glad we held onto our 40-hour guarantee,” said Jeff Heckathorn.

—Arlene Rubinstein

California nurses walk out
in fight against takebacks
SAN FRANCISCO—Thousands of nurses and other hospital workers in California carried out a one-day strike September 22 against takeback contracts being demanded by two giant hospital chains, Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente.

“Sutter is threatening to cut every single benefit we have,” said Jan Carter, one of several hundred nurses who rallied outside the Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley. Hospital demands include cuts to paid sick leave, forcing nurses to pay more for medical care, and reductions in pay for newly hired nurses.

“It’s not just about the money. We’re here because Sutter is hurting patient care,” said Lori Anson, referring to the hospital’s demand that nurses give up the right to advocate for their patients.

Eight Sutter hospitals in northern California employ some 4,500 nurses who are members of the union, the California Nurses Association. After the nurses announced the one-day strike, Sutter retaliated by locking them out for additional days.

Some 4,000 nurses and other hospital workers at Kaiser Permanente in contract negotiations throughout California are members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers. They are being asked to accept cuts in medical benefits and pensions. Thousands of CNA-organized Kaiser nurses walked out in solidarity with their coworkers.

A lively picket line outside the Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco included many of the hospital’s CNA nurses as well as optical workers, cleaners, mental health workers, and others who are members of the NUHW. Nurses on the line emphasized that although their union recently signed a new contract with Kaiser, solidarity with the NUHW workers is necessary.

“The central issue for us is staffing,” explained Julie Whitehead, one of many psychologists on the line. She said not having enough therapists meant appointments are delayed, often as much as six weeks.

In southern California, Kaiser Permanente workers struck for three days beginning September 21.

“An early morning shift of pickets was able to hold the line against five busloads of strikebreakers for over an hour,” said Patricia Tamayo, an intensive care nurse, outside the Los Angeles Medical Center in Hollywood. It was only after a show of force by the police and threats of arrest, she said, that the buses went in.

—Betsey Stone, with Barbara
Bowman from L.A. contributing