support for the striking grocery workers

[michael <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was asked to forward this petition about the grocery workers strike.
Besides being an issue of justice, the strike itself revolves around a
very important phenomenon -- what we might call the Wal-Martization of
the labor force.  The regular grocery stores probably do have trouble
competing with Wal-Mart so long as Wal-Mart moves in the direction of a
sweatshop employer model.  Without a strong union or political movement,
I don't see anything stopping this process from spreading.


As you are likely aware, the 70,000 grocery members in Southern
California are entering their 4th month of being on strike against
Safeway, Kroger, and Albertson's.  We are asking academics and
colleagues to sign a petition supporting the grocery workers and a fair
bargaining process.  Please sign the petition online located at
http://www.ufcw.org/hold_the_line/petition_academic.cfm .  I have
included the text below.  Please circulate the e-mail.  We need to show
these companies that  all communities stand in solidarity with the
working families who are taking a stand for affordable health care.  If
you have any questions at all or would like additional information,
please feel free to contact me.

In solidarity,
Joey

Petition for the Academic Community
http://www.ufcw.org/hold_the_line/petition_academic.cfm

Statement on the Southern California Grocery Strike:

What's at Stake for America

Over 70,000 supermarket workers have been on strike or locked out since
October 11, 2003. Millions of customers have been inconvenienced, and
hundreds of millions of dollars have been drained from the Southern
California economy. The strike/lockout has exacted a terrible human and
economic toll.

But the implications of this labor dispute are even more far-reaching.
If Safeway and its coalition partners, Albertson's and Kroger, succeed
in imposing the changes in workers' health insurance benefits that they
are currently demanding, it is only a matter of time before other
employers will follow suit. All Americans who care about access to
decent health care have a stake in this conflict.

Safeway and the other supermarket chains claim that they are seeking
"modest" changes that would require employees pay only $5 to $15 a week
toward their health care premiums. However, the truth is more
disturbing. These employers propose to slash their insurance
contributions by 65 percent (from $3.85 under the last union contract,
to only $1.35 per hour) for all employees hired after October 6, 2003.
In this industry with its high employee turnover, it is estimated that
30 percent of employees would be in this category by the end of the next
three-year contract.

For current employees and retirees the proposed plan would retain a
variant of their old plan. But with younger, newer employees left out of
this traditional plan, and increasingly older and sicker employees
remaining, the health-care costs per employee inevitably will rise,
threatening the overall viability of the plan. As Professors Rick Brown
(UCLA) and Richard Kronick (UC San Diego) wrote recently in the San
Francisco Chronicle, "For new hires and their families, the employers'
proposal would lead to the end of affordable health care." Eventually,
they add, for current employees as well the resulting plan "will be
forced to drastically curtail covered benefits or increase employee-paid
premiums to unaffordable levels." 1

If these proposals by Safeway, Kroger and Albertson's are implemented, a
major sector of private industry would effectively be abandoning its
longstanding commitment to providing health-care benefits for its
employees¯an example that other employers would likely follow, thus
jeopardizing the quality of employer-provided health-care plans
throughout the economy.

Safeway, Kroger and Albertson's are companies with billions of dollars
in assets¯and their southern California stores are profitable
operations. These corporations surely can afford to do the right thing
and maintain their commitment to providing decent health insurance
benefits to their hard-working employees. Those employees, and all
Americans, deserve no less.

1. E. Richard Brown and Richard Kronick, "Holes in the Safety Net," S.F.
Chronicle, 12/8/03.

Petition for the Academic Community
http://www.ufcw.org/hold_the_line/petition_academic.cfm

Statement on the Southern California Grocery Strike:

What's at Stake for America

Over 70,000 supermarket workers have been on strike or locked out since
October 11, 2003. Millions of customers have been inconvenienced, and
hundreds of millions of dollars have been drained from the Southern
California economy. The strike/lockout has exacted a terrible human and
economic toll.

But the implications of this labor dispute are even more far-reaching.
If Safeway and its coalition partners, Albertson's and Kroger, succeed
in imposing the changes in workers' health insurance benefits that they
are currently demanding, it is only a matter of time before other
employers will follow suit. All Americans who care about access to
decent health care have a stake in this conflict.

Safeway and the other supermarket chains claim that they are seeking
"modest" changes that would require employees pay only $5 to $15 a week
toward their health care premiums. However, the truth is more
disturbing. These employers propose to slash their insurance
contributions by 65 percent (from $3.85 under the last union contract,
to only $1.35 per hour) for all employees hired after October 6, 2003.
In this industry with its high employee turnover, it is estimated that
30 percent of employees would be in this category by the end of the next
three-year contract.

For current employees and retirees the proposed plan would retain a
variant of their old plan. But with younger, newer employees left out of
this traditional plan, and increasingly older and sicker employees
remaining, the health-care costs per employee inevitably will rise,
threatening the overall viability of the plan. As Professors Rick Brown
(UCLA) and Richard Kronick (UC San Diego) wrote recently in the San
Francisco Chronicle, "For new hires and their families, the employers'
proposal would lead to the end of affordable health care." Eventually,
they add, for current employees as well the resulting plan "will be
forced to drastically curtail covered benefits or increase employee-paid
premiums to unaffordable levels." 1

If these proposals by Safeway, Kroger and Albertson's are implemented, a
major sector of private industry would effectively be abandoning its
longstanding commitment to providing health-care benefits for its
employees¯an example that other employers would likely follow, thus
jeopardizing the quality of employer-provided health-care plans
throughout the economy.

Safeway, Kroger and Albertson's are companies with billions of dollars
in assets¯and their southern California stores are profitable
operations. These corporations surely can afford to do the right thing
and maintain their commitment to providing decent health insurance
benefits to their hard-working employees. Those employees, and all
Americans, deserve no less.

1. E. Richard Brown and Richard Kronick, "Holes in the Safety Net," S.F.
Chronicle, 12/8/03.





_______________________
Joey J. Hipolito
Research Associate
United Food & Commercial Workers
International Union (UFCW)
1775 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20006
phone: (202) 466-1590
fax: (202) 466-1587
jhipolito@xxxxxxxx

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901