Organizations Vow to Support Workers on Strike
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 11/3/2003
Several national organizations for worker's rights came together last week to voice their support for supermarket workers who have been on strike in order to protect their livelihoods and save healthcare coverage.The organizations, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the AFL-CIO, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), said they will continue to ban together and support the almost 90,000 UFCW members in southern California, Missouri, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, most of whom have been on strike since October 11. The organizations' leaders also encouraged consumers to take a stand and boycott stores that have workers on strike.
UFCW President Doug Dority spoke to a crowd of supporters.
"Make no mistake about the scope and consequences of this struggle," he said. "It is corporate greed versus human need, and corporate greed is a killer."
The nationwide strikes came after a contract offered by the supermarket giants Safeway, Kroger, and Albertson's was rejected by 97 percent of UFCW members, who would have seen a 75 percent cut in their healthcare benefits had the contract passed.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney stressed the important implications of supporting the workers' cause.
"This is an extremely important struggle, not only for union members, but for every community in this nation—by taking on their workers, these big, profitable companies are taking on all of America," Sweeney said.
Safeway, Kroger, and Albertson's are the three largest supermarkets in the country, according to UFCW. Although their profits have increased ten times faster than the cost of healthcare, corporate decision makers claim that they need to cut healthcare benefits in order to compete with companies that do not provide benefits, such as Wal-Mart.
If the supermarket giants were to follow Wal-Mart's example, employees would pay as much as $1000 in deductibles and still not be covered for basic necessities such as flu shots or vaccinations for their children, according to the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.
Lisa Butcher, who has worked at Kroger for 22 years, said she provides healthcare and pension benefits for her entire family.
"I just want decent benefits," she pleaded to a crowd gathered inside the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C.
For workers like Butcher, whose current salaries put them slightly above the poverty line, a cut in healthcare will not only put them below the poverty line, but also force them to make tough decisions between food and doctors' visits.
LCCR Executive Director Wade Henderson also spoke to the crowd assembled at the AFL-CIO.
"Forty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther Kind, Jr. used to say that the right to be served at a lunch counter doesn't mean anything if you can't afford a hamburger," he said. "Forty years later, the paper promises of 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' don't mean much if you can't afford to take your kids to the doctor for regular checkups."
