CommentsLATINO PERSPECTIVE--Trough EFEUSA … a Spanish language news source … I found out that this past Tuesday about 2,000 workers and union leaders protesting against the Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons supermarkets, warning that they are "ready" to stage a strike if no agreement is reached in the next three days.
"The workers traveled here from San Luis Obispo and San Diego to tell the owners that, although we don't want to go on strike, we're ready to do so," said Rigoberto Valdez, vice president of Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, or UFCW.
The collective bargaining agreement at the supermarkets ended four months ago and the parties have been unable to reach a new accord due to differences over working conditions.
Tuesday's march began at Lafayette Park and ended at the intersection of Vermont and 3rd Street. Once there, the demonstrators blocked traffic and protested peacefully for almost an hour in front of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons.
Valdez insisted that union leaders want to "avoid a strike" and that they will try to negotiate a "fair" contract by Thursday, but he warned that the stances of the workers and the companies are, at present, "far apart." If no accord can be reached, on Aug. 8 the workers will vote to decide if they should launch a strike, which could commence on Aug. 9 and last indefinitely.
The union leader said that the strike would affect 300 stores located in Southern California and the economic fallout in the region would be "devastating."
"The last strike we held against these companies lasted 144 days. It lasted from the fall of 2013 until the spring of 2014 and both the companies and the consumers were affected," he said. For the past five months, about 50,000 people, half of them Hispanic, have been working for the firms without a union contract.
Among the workers is Elvira Barragan Quintero, who is head of the flower department at the Albertsons store in Montebello. "It's very unfair that after having invested 24 years working at this company, now they want to take away our salary and retirement benefits," the part-time employee said.
"I earn $14.80 per hour after 24 years, and they don't want to pay minimum wage," she added.
We have to make sure that workers are paid a living wage and have decent working conditions, that’s just the right thing to do.
(Fred Mariscal came to Los Angeles from Mexico City in 1992 to study at the University of Southern California and has been in LA ever since. He is a community leader and was a candidate for Los Angeles City Council in District 4. Fred writes Latino Perspective for CityWatch and can be reached at: [email protected].)
-cw
Latino Workers Join Protest, Threaten Supermarket Strike
