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Los
Angeles—Affordable family health care coverage is a moral issue.
It is a dominant civil rights issue of the 21st
century.
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| Members of the faith
and labor communities hold the line for affordable health
care at Safeway's LA office. |
We are dismayed that three Fortune
50 companies—Safeway/Vons, Kroger/Ralphs, and Albertsons—led
by Safeway CEO Steve Burd have forced 70,000 Southern California
supermarket workers into the streets in an attempt to effectively
eliminate their health care benefits.
Safeway and the other supermarkets have knowingly misled the
public about the impact of their demands that would “end
affordable health care” for new employees” [and]
“drastically curtail covered benefits or increase employee-paid
premiums to unaffordable levels” for current employees,
according to health care benefits experts E. Richard Brown, PhD.,
and Richard Kronick, PhD.
The
supermarket workers are engaged in a righteous struggle, fighting
to save health care benefits, not just for their families, but all
working families. After more than 100 days on the picket line,
they have sacrificed everything for this cause.
 Safeway/Vons
and the other grocers are some of the largest and most profitable
supermarkets in the world. Yet they would push dedicated,
productive employees from work to welfare for their medical
protection.
The
supermarket workers are our friends, neighbors, and congregants.
Our children ride the school bus with their children. We cannot
stand idly by and witness the devastation of their families. We
cannot allow the devastation of our communities that comes with
the loss of family health care coverage.
We will
take the cause of the supermarket workers directly to the Safeway
boardroom and executive offices—wherever they may be—seeking
the economic justice the workers deserve.
We urge
Safeway and the other markets to deal fairly and honestly with
their employees. We pray they return to the bargaining table to
negotiate a just settlement.
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