Tomorrow is the moment of truth.
Are the proprietors of large supermarket chains willing to be reasonable and allow workers to maintain a decent standard of living, or will dreams of even bigger yachts and backroom parties at the Bellagio get in the way of making a reasonable offer to supermarket workers in Southern California?
Let's hope past is not prologue, or a number of corporate oligarchs may be in for a bumpy ride not only in Southern California, but nationwide. As explained in a recent article in the Los Angeles City Beat:
Three weeks ago, when Southern California grocery workers announced a June 21 deadline to end their six-month back-and-forth with the big three supermarket chains, Vons, Ralphs, and Albertsons, it took exactly one week for their union brethren in Texas to terminate their contract extensions and start talking work stoppage. On June 11, workers in Toledo, Ohio did likewise, switching from a general, ongoing contract extension to a "meeting-by-meeting" extension, at the same time that similar talks have heated up in Oregon and Washington State. Rumblings have even been heard coming out of talks with the mostly independent grocery chains in St. Louis, Missouri. Now, as Los Angeles' cut-off date arrives with no agreement in sight, some labor voices are warning not just about picket lines, but about nationwide picket lines.
"This is part of a much larger fight across the U.S., of companies attempting to eliminate middle class jobs for maximum shareholder profits," says Mike Shimpock, a spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the union representing grocery workers, "It's happening all over the country, [these strikes] could certainly end up going national. They could engulf the entire West Coast. The markets are playing a very, very dangerous game of chicken in order to save a few pennies."
So there you have it. We'll know the answer tomorrow, as the last meeting before a potential strike is taking place with workers and the corporates sitting down together.
But if this is not resolved quickly and fairly, so that workers do not have to see their healcare disappear and wages continue to stagnate, then it may be time for a few corporate chieftains to strap themselves in. For it's going to be a bumpy ride.
I hate to see the end of unions. Without them workers would not have health care, fair wages, or safe working conditions. I guess that explains why corporate conservatives hate them.
it’s about time we had some action in the streets. the bumpier the better. america, if it is to come back to it’s founding values, needs a loud wake up call. good luck with the venture cliff.
It seems to me, that often people ride the momentum of a movement and feel that there is no need to do something because lots of progress has already been made. What we forget though, is that progress was made BECAUSE people didn’t sit back and just let things happen. While karol’s observation of unions appears to be the predominant thought, the reason we’re in this mess now is because unions can no longer unequivocally provide the benefits or rights we’re accustomed to getting from them because they spend the majority of their time fighting the large corporations about so many other issues that honestly, should just go uncontested but unfortunately, don’t.
There once was a huge corporation called, The East India Trading Company. This company bought up all the tea in the land and with the help of the government was able to avoid taxes the ‘common man’ with a small tea shop had to pay. Small tea shops went out of business and the consumer was forced to pay outlandish prices. Then came a great revolt! It’s time for history to repeat itself!
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