Would you cross a picket line? Have you changed stores since the last strike/lockout?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.presstelegram.com/opinions/ci_6234756

Speak out on market strike
Would you cross a picket line? Have you changed stores since the last strike/lockout?
Article Launched: 06/26/2007 06:40:17 PM PDT

The last Southern California grocery workers strike and lockout, in 2003-2004, lasted 141 days, cost the market chains an estimated $1.5 billion, devastated the finances of strikers and resulted in shoppers switching to other stores in droves.

Worse yet, strikers lost ground in terms of less pay for new hires and a diminished health insurance plan. And perhaps worst of all, many shoppers were insulted as they tried to cross angry picket lines, some vowing never to return. In short, no one won that strike, except perhaps the shoppers who found better deals at friendlier markets. And, of course, the other markets and warehouse stores that welcomed their new customers warmly.

Now members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union have voted overwhelmingly to give their leaders the OK to call a strike. Some observers say this is just a ploy to show the market chains - Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons - that they're serious.

The issue they're most serious about is health insurance. Under terms of the contract that expired in March, only 7 percent of workers hired since the last strike are getting health insurance from the market chains, according to a report in the L.A. Times. Those "second-tier" workers would have to wait much less time to insure themselves and their dependents under a tentative agreement reached earlier in negotiations.

The other issue, pay, hasn't been decided upon yet. Workers have not received a pay raise since 2002. Earlier, union employees at Stater Brothers Markets, which was a big winner in the last strike, bargained for a pay raise of about $1.25 over three years. After 20 pay steps, which start at $9.20 an hour, a clerk could earn as much as $18.40.

Each week we invite readers to give us their opinions on a topic in the news. This week's questions:

If grocery workers strike again, would you honor or cross their picket lines? After the last strike was settled, in 2004, did you return to the market you patronized before the strike, or did you continue shopping elsewhere?

Here's how to respond:

By e-mail, with name and city:

[e-mail]

Deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday. We'll publish as many responses as we can accommodate, Saturday on the Speakout page.

Setting the record straight

An editorial Tuesday should have said that if no candidate received a majority in Tuesday's 37th Congressional District special election, the one with the most votes from each party would compete in a runoff Aug. 21.

[liberalnurse]

1. No, I never have,

nor will I ever cross a picket line......or work as a high-paid nurse/scab. O8)

[burrowowl]

2. Hell NO!

It is against my religion to cross a picket line!
Long live Liberation Theology!

[flamingyouth]

3. I never have as an adult.

My parents made me go to school during a teachers' strike when I was a kid, though.

During a summer-long grocery strike here in 1989 I lived next door to an Albertson's that was being picketed and I went two miles out of my way to shop at another store.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I do not cross picket lines...

I belonged to a union before I retired, and I know how it feels to see folks crossing the line I was walking.

I changed stores while the strike was going on, but I returned to my own when the union released us from our boycott.

There is still a lot of bitterness towards management from the long-term employees that I have talked with...

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

5. Absolutely not.

My late grandfather and father would literally haunt me. I come from a very strong union family and there is no way I would ever cross a picket line.

[wundermaus]

6. When all the Unions in the United States go on strike...

to support the Grocery workers strike... that will send a loud, clear message the the corporate suits... the jig is up: The days of the elitists are numbered and it will be a black tie (armband) affair. Fascism is a cancer on the working class... time to cut it out.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. It depends

I am a teacher and it would be very hard for me to honor a strike unless I was convinced it was best for the kids.

Other strikes though, no problem. I have never crossed a picket line and never would.

[wundermaus]

8. Have ever heard of or know of a teachers strike

that was not in the best interests of the students? Please cite one.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Several

When they are strictly about salary, that is about what is best for the teachers, not the kids.

There have been many strikes over funding and classroom supplies. Those are about the kids. And the last strike in my district was over planning time for teachers. You can't teach if you don't have time to plan. That was what was best for kids also.

[wundermaus]

11. So higher salaries for teachers are not in the best interests

of the students... And therefore, so higher salaries for grocery workers does not serve the best interests of the consumer... Shall we pay you less then? Wouldn't that be in the best interests of your students. And with the schools paying you less and the grocery stores paying less, that would certainly benefit the consumers with lower prices... right? Do you see the illogic of that argument?

Let me put it this way. Let's pay teachers a dollar a day to teach students how to be good citizens. For a dollar a day, we could hire ten teachers per classroom and it would still be cheaper than one expensive, highly trained, dedicated, reliable, honest, sincere, motivated, selfless, mentoring, living example of a good citizen.

Now, consider the lowly grocery worker that has the task of providing a wide variety of wholesome foods for your breakfast, lunch, and dinner table. Consider the backbreaking labor of endlessly stocking shelves, rotating out expired, damaged, or spoiled product... while providing a clean and friendly environment while their feet swell up and their backs ache from standing for hours at a cash registers. Consider their bosses that earn fat salaries and perks and bonuses and golden parachutes. Let's pay those lowly workers less... after all, the groceries will cost less, right? Wrong. It's all about making a living wage. And it's all about corporate greed. It's all about 2 Americas: the givers and the takers. The poor, the barely making it from paycheck to pay check vs the insatiable greed of their elite masters. The balance of equity and sharing is off the scale. The people that serve you, that do their jobs, day after day, month after month, year after year... have families... and they would like to do more with their lives than be slaves for you and greedy slave owners. They want a living wage, they want time to spend with their families instead of moonlighting a second or third job. They want health care to protect the things they cherish most each other... and they don't want a hand out. The people that server you are our brothers and sisters. Cross a picket line? Is that all they ask of you? Every time you cross a picket line you take food, clothing, and shelter away from that honest worker's family and put it in a rich man's pocket. So take a hundred dollar bill out of your own wallet and burn it. That's what it feels like when you cross a picket line.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Teachers don't make a dollar a day

and if our pay was lowered to that amount, there wouldn't be a strike. We would all quit.

[TygrBright]

15. So... how much salary is "too much" for the people doing the single most important job...

...in a democracy?

Just curious.

quizzically,
Bright

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. No salary is too much

[Maat]

9. Nope - didn't during the last one.

I had to go to the little drugstore next store for an 'emergency' bottle of children's Motrin last time, but IT wasn't being picketed (the picketing was next door).

[mitchtv]

12. No not ever as a former picket captain

not gonna happen. I participate in other unions' picket lines as a member of CWA. Our local gave picket credit to march in others'lines

[Zoigal]

13. Never crossed a picket line

to my knowledge. Participated as strike captain in two strikes. Convinced
the group to act in a respectful, polite manner...kind of tough when it came to
interacting with the "scabs". Never asked them to do anything that was unethical
or destructive. Witnessed the police doing a lot of awful stuff. In my experiences
management wanted to break our union. Only succeeded in making it stronger.

[TygrBright]

14. When I was growing up, the DFL had only three simple rules:

1. Vote the straight Party ticket.

2. Never cross a picket line.

3. Plug in your car EVERY night from 10/1 to 3/31.

Since moving away from MN, I admit I've backslid on #3. Heck, my current car doesn't even have a headblock heater.

But the other two stuck good.

Unfortunately, I hardly ever shop at grocery stores any more, farmers' markets and co-ops are the bulk of my shopping, so I doubt my honoring a strike would have much impact. I do stop in to Albertson's from time to time for Himself's Campbells Cream of Tomato soup and my Stewarts root beer. If Albertson's were striking, I'd have to head downtown to the indy market. But I'd do that, absolutely.

Absolutely. I don't think I COULD cross a picket line. I'd be afraid of lightning...

sagely,
Bright

[ninkasi]

16. I never have, and never will

cross a picket line. Workers need all the support they can get here in Bush-hell. My company was on strike in 1983, and management arranged to have a local restaurant deliver food every day to the scabs. The rest of us never ate there, or ordered food from them, again. I heard later that their business went downhill after that.