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UFCW offers to
end strike and accept binding mediation:
UNI Commerce affiliate UFCW made an offer yesterday to end the supermarket workers' strike in California and move into binding mediation instead. This offer was immediately turned down by the three retail giants Safeway, Kroger and Albertsons. More than anything, this proves that the three employers have set their sights on copying Wal-Mart's low-wage and no-benefits concept, and are not prepared to seek a fair solution to the conflict. For the 70,000 supermarket workers in Southern California, the fight for affordable health insurance and for the right to make a decent living through their work continues. They have been holding the line against a walmartization of American working life almost for four months now, in an increasingly difficult economic and social situation. Medical insurances for workers and their families have expired and strike benefits from the union can hardly cover even the most basic needs. Even health service providers in Southern California are sounding alarm bells, referring to the slowing down of business. If this does not prove what will happen with peoples' health if workers are denied affordable medical insurance, then what would do it? Supermarket workers continue to fight supported by entire labour movement What keeps the supermarket workers going is that they know they have to do it. To give in to the employer demands would have meant slipping down into the growing ranks of America's working poor. No more health care, no more college for the kids, no future on the job. The American labour movement knows what is at stake. UFCW is now in the frontline, but the fight in Southern California is for a common cause. Will George Bush's America prevail, a country where corporate greed and enriching the wealthy are in the high seat? Or can the UFCW, supported by the entire American labour movement, by communities, by democratic leaders, and others, hold the line for the right of working families to live secure and dignified lives? Material support for the supermarket workers strike continues to come in. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) which organises the workers in American ports pledged to raise one million dollars to cover the cost of health benefits for the workers who lost their health care on January 1.The California Teachers Association donated 500,000 dollars for a state-wide radio campaign asking customers not to shop at the struck and locked-out chains. In Northern California, shop workers have collected food and toys for the striking workers' families. Financial support from UNI affiliates Solidarity support is arriving also from abroad. UNI Commerce affiliates, but also unions in other sectors, have made donations to the UFCW strike support funds. Substantial contributions have been made by commerce unions in Japan, Denmark, United Kingdom, Ireland and many other countries. Workers and their unions world-wide know how significant the fight of their American colleagues is also for their own future in a globalised commerce industry. Yesterday's UFCW manifestation on Wall Street in New York was well placed and timed. As Wal-Mart is apparently set to be the role model for the large U.S. supermarket chains, investors do need to be alerted about their behaviour. Many investors want to make sure that they can morally defend their participation in the companies, whose shares they hold. Pensions funds, but also other public and private institutional investors, expect socially responsible behaviour from the management of these companies. More than a labour conflict What the three American supermarket giants are doing right now cannot be defended. This is much more than an ordinary labour conflict. The behaviour of Safeway's Steve Burd and his colleagues at Kroger and Albertsons raises serious questions about the entire market economy, and about corporate ethics. Will we have a future where societies are polarised, where corporate greed enriches a few, and where a majority of workers are denied their rights, their dignity, their health care, the education of their children and their means of living? Or will the U.S. labour movement, spearheaded by the 70,000 Californian supermarket workers and their trade union UFCW, succeed in defending a socially responsible society, where families and communities can go along with their lives? There are increasingly clear signs that patience with the three supermarket companies is indeed wearing thin. Democratic political leaders, community leaders, social security specialists, medical professionals and other people from all walks of life are speaking out, expressing their disgust with this all out attack on workers and their families. U.S. media reflect these sentiments and the companies' share values are suffering. This is indeed a turning point for American working life. But the country's labour movement is strong, and the 70,000 Californian supermarket workers are holding out in an incredible show of solidarity and personal courage. Their strike has already been a wake-up call for all workers in the United States, but also around the world, alerting them to the threat that they face from greedy corporate giants.
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