Join the Nov 22 March on Safeway In Oakland

I was on that march and protest. As usual, the unions mobilized - their own staffers. I doubt that one in 20 of those present were rank and file members of any union. I think the unions and the central labor councils could have done far better.

We (in Labor's Militant Voice) put out the follwing leaflet:

Defend Health Care
Support Grocery Store Strikers

Southern California grocery store chains are trying to stick it to their workers. They are demanding what would ultimately be a $95 per week co-pay for health care for current employees. (It would be even worse for new hires.) A typical grocery store worker - a single mom with three kids who works 30 hours per week - would be paying $4,900 per year (25% of her pre-tax income) for health care.

But wait, there’s more!

If the grocery store chains succeed in the south, northern California grocery workers will be next when their contract comes up next year. The same for workers in every other industry. In Washington D.C., they are now planning to start privatizing medicare, which will end up with a multi-tier system based on what a senior can afford to pay. Right down the line, for-profit health care means a disaster for working class people. At this rate, any sort of decent health care will be unaffordable for the great majority in the future. This means, if your baby is sick, he or she had better be able to get well on their own. If you have chronic back problems, then you can just live with pain. If your health fails as you get older, you can just suffer and die.

Unless you are rich, of course.

The Southern California grocery store workers are striking to resist this process. This is why all workers have a stake in this strike. It is a very positive step that the UFCW has brought strikers up to the Bay Area to picket Safeways here. However, the Safeway workers are still left to keep working inside. And meanwhile the other stores (Albertsons) are allowed to continue operating without problems.

The next logical step would be for the Union to reach out to all unions and all working class people. They could explain how this strike is part of the larger health care crisis and on this basis to pull together a community/labor health alliance. Mass pickets could be organized for all the chains here, and through this the workers inside could be also pulled out to join the picket lines. It would be made clear that if they are forced out on strike next year, that they will not have to strike alone also.

Normally, it would make sense to simply rely on the Alameda County Central Labor Council (CLC) to carry out this task. Unfortunately, the CLC does not have a good record in really bringing out the tens of thousands of union members it represents and it would be a mistake to rely on them to do it this time. Therefore, it will be up to the striking union and their supporters to do go directly to the work places and to the communities and organize..

There are a few key demands that could unite the great majority of working class people here in this country:

*For fully paid full health care in all union contracts, including the Southern California grocery store workers. No co-pays, no deductibles. Even one dollar is too much; soon a one dollar co-pay becomes five, then ten, then ninety-five. For a victory for Southern California grocery store workers.

*For a nationalized health care system in the United States; take the profit out of health care. This means that health care would be a public service, like public education or fire fighting, paid for by our taxes. Where would the money come from? See below for that.. We should remember that this is the only industrialized country in the world that does not have such a nationalized health care system.

*For a one-day walk-off! With the presidential election coming up, the corporate-controlled politicians are crawling out of the woodwork. None of them, however, raises the issue of socialized medicine. This despite the fact that this is the only solution to this crisis. In order to put the issue front and center, the labor movement, together with the community groups and the youth should organize a national, one-day walk-off. Shut the country down for a day.

Don’t wait, don’t stress, don’t heistate; organize!
Attend your union meetings. Speak up for united labor action.
Who we are: Labor’s Militant Voice is a group of workers, many of us with years of union activism, who believe in stronger, more aggressive unions and a democratic socialist society owned and run by and for working class people. Contact us if you want to help organize for more aggressive unions.

WHERE THE MONEY IS
Cost of war in Iraq: $450,000 per hour
Current US military spending: $38 billion/month
Bush's projected spending to continue occupation of Iraq: $87 billion

WHO'S NOT PAYING FOR IT

TAXES
Corporate taxes as share of all taxes
1950= 27%
1970 = 17%
1990 = 9%
All this, plus the special priviliges and loopholes of the rip off artists like the Enron scammers.

Top 10 CEO's average annual pay: 1981-$3.5 m; 1988 = $18.2 m; 2000 = $154m

Obviously it is a positive thing, having a march supporting striking grocery workers. But another way of looking at this is to reflect on how dismal the outcome was.

There were around 500 people at the rally I would think. if you were to take away all the union officials, left groups, and other "progressives" as well as rank and file union officers who are involved in these higher bodies with a staffing position in mind or to get help for their political campaign for a school board or city council here and there. Maybe there were a handful of rank and filers who are looking to fight in a serious way against the offensive of the employers which means challenging the present policies of the AFL-CIO leadership.

The Alameda Central labor Council when I was a delegate represented about 160,000 members I think. And they turn out 500? Union officials blame member apathy for this. The real reason is the same as it has always been. What the CLC means by mobilization, or the influential heads of the local AFL-CIO unions mean by it is mobilizing BA's, council delegates and any harmless left wingers who promise they won't publicly differ with their policies. In no way will they use the resources of the labor movement that they control to reach in to the depths of their memberships and the working class communities to bring us out to fight on our own behalf.
And why should members not be apathetic? The Union leadership refuses to go on the offensive.

It is not corruption or cronyism that determines this strategy although this does exist in the union movement like other forces in society. It stems from the union leaders acceptance of the employers' view of the world. They accept the laws of the market and blindly follow the employers anti-union laws. We are surrounded by corruption and theft from Enron to Fannie Mae, employers violate contracts every day on the job firing workers that strongly defend them and the heads of the AFL-CIO at all levels won't violate the law or a contract by pulling all workers off the job, shutting Safeway down and making the tragedy of U.S. health care a rallying call for all workers, union and non-union alike.

The reason that all the strikes over the past period have been defeated is due to this approach by the labor leadership not by a refusal of the rank and file to sacrifice. Given the dimal record of organized labor, why would someone feel that a victory can be had in this battle? In contract after contract we have taken concessions, concessions that have been descibed by our leaders as "defensive victories' or as "accepting reality". It's hard to mobilize people around a program of "defensive victories".

An unfortunate part of union activity is opposing these policies and helping to build an open oppostion to them.

I would also be interested in the name oif the author of the post. I think he was called labor man or something.

Richard Mellor
member, AFSCME Local 444

Grocery workers are incredibly overpaid for the mindless, uneducated work they have to do. I mean, come on $18-20 an hour plus health benefits to scan groceries? Pretty soon embedded chips will make the groceries scan themselves! Almost every other employer makes their employees pay a portion of their health care costs.

Plus, you fail to point out, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA SAFEWAY WORKERS ARE *NOT* ON STRIKE