Locals react to national grocery store strikes

By Michelle Murphy

While fires in Southern California continue to ravage the area, residents are finding that they also have another physical threat to deal with.

Grocery shopping has suddenly become a frightening process as employees, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, have formed picket lines outside of local supermarkets, including Safeway and Albertson's.

Members of this union are striking in Southern California, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky in response to corporate attempts to reduce employee health care and retirement benefits. As contracts for national members of the UFCW union face expiration, corporate employers are being accused of greed and inconsideration under the excuse of the country's struggling economy.

"This is not an issue of a company struggling to survive in a poor economy. This is an issue of corporate greed surging ahead at the expense of hardworking employees," stated UFCW Local 400 President Jim Lowthers in a statement on the union's Web site.

With 1.4 million members nationwide ready to strike when their contracts expire, working against the interests of UFCW workers could mean huge financial losses for these large supermarket chains. These strikes could affect not only the employees on strike, but it could also create an inconvenient dilemma for the average shopper, including Santa Clara students, to whom Safeway and Albertson's are among the only reasonably local vendors.

However, as the Associated Press reported Monday, Bay Area employee contracts do not run out until September 2004, negating any immediate threat to supermarkets in this area.

This does not mean that problems may not arise next year, as local UFCW members have given every indication that if presented with contracts similar those offered in Southern California in the fall, they will not hesitate to strike.

Local Safeway employees declined to comment on the situation, but a representative for San Jose's Local 428 union branch said that local members are fully supportive of their Southern California counterparts.

Considering the threat is not immediate to this area, many students are not informed on the issues surrounding the controversy, and those who are have torn sentiments.

Senior Jennifer Righetti expressed her sympathy with union members, but ultimately said cutting health care benefits in a poor economy is an eventuality we all must to face.

"Certainly they shouldn't be cutting back on basic health care, but so many people take unfair advantage of peripheral benefits, and that's something I'm not sympathetic to. I just hope that it all gets resolved soon," Righetti said.

Contact Michelle Murphy at (408) 554-4546 or at mdmurphy@scu.edu.