reports on grocery workers actions

national | anti-capitalism | news report Sunday February 01, 2004 20:30 by john throne - labors militant voice loughfinn at aol dot com

Irish indymedia recently had an announcement for the action of the grocery workers in Oakland California. They are struggling against the employers in an effort to maintain health care in their contracts. Here are three reports on this action and the issues raised.

Report from Richard Mellor. Member of American federation of state county municipal workers and Labors militant Voice.

About 1500 or so people attended a rally in Oakland CA today in
support of the striking grocery workers from southern California. I
arrived on the picket line about 4 hours before marchers from a
nearby park arrived. While I was on the line I talked with many of
the strikers about our plan to go in and hold a mini rally in the
store. Some of the folks from the anti-war group I have been
somewhat involved with were unwilling to go in to the store if the
people organizing the rally, the State federation of Labor and
Central labor Council (the union hierarchy) opposed it. I wasn't
concerned whether the labor leaders opposed it or not but what the
strikers want is important to me.
Anyway, all of the strikers supported us going in to the store and
holding a mini rally in there regardless of the position of the union
officials.

After some time the marchers arrived. But about 15 minutes before
this, a huge $60,000 SUV drove up and the important labor officials
got out. Tom Rankin from the State Fed and some others. (Rankin
used to be in a socialist group called the IS.) I recognized the guy
driving the tank as a delegate from the CLC who heads security and
had two huge golden rings on his fingers. Anyway, they joined the
picket line 15 minutes or so before the marchers arrived.

As the crowd swelled I could see the impression this was having on
the faces of many of the strikers who I have come to know personally.
Strike activity has been cowed here in the U.S. and this is perhaps
the biggest grocery strike in 25 years and one of the most important.
Being on the lines with these people has been so important for me and
is important for all anti-capitalists and revolutionaries. Here we
meet workers at our best in many ways. The ideology of the
capitalist class is weakened as workers struggle and sacrifice for
the necessities of life. Class solidarity is strengthened and sexism
and racism and other forms of class division are in retreat. Many of
these folks have lost their homes and possessions. It is amazing
that they have the outlook they do at this point but things are
getting tough.

People saw the potential power of labor as the crowd grew bigger and
union jackets and hats could be seen everywhere. Who could not feel
a sense of solidarity and strength in moments like these? But before
the main crowd arrived, a few staffers joined the line. These were
overwhelmingly young people and one had a bullhorn. Unlike the
strikers I have been on many of these picket lines and attended many
of these rally's organized by the labor hierarchy and I know they are
only token gestures. Before the staffers came I was talking with the
strikers about the boycott and how it has failed miserably in the
past. I explained the need to shut down all the stores, we organize
workers, not consumers. All the pickets agreed.

But the staffer started with the usual slogans "we are the union, the
mighty mighty union" and "don't shop Safeway" and "Boycott safeway"
Another chant was we want a contract when do we want it now. The
AFL-CIO is going on the offensive according to them and want to widen
the boycott. This is the official position, boycott. Naturally, the
strikers followed suit and chanted these slogans. It made me realize
how difficult it is to get people to think about what really works
when the much more powerful subjective factor is pushing what
doesn't. After all, the union leaders have offered $400 million in
concessions and the employers rejected it. What sort of contract do
we want? But the mood of the moment is solidarity and the influence
of the official leadership is strong. It is when strikes are defeated
that the hatred and anger begins and is often directed against the
union as an organization.

I was talking with one picketer about the expected arrests. The
heads of the CLC, state fed and others had arranged with the police
to get arrested.It was sort of sickening to see them getting their
pictures taken and being arrested. One picketer told me that a cop
told him, "if you're not on the arrested list you'll get arrested".
It was like a Bush photo op.

Still, the mood was good and I am sure the strikers felt better as
they were not alone. Unfortunately, they are not aware that this is
not the beginning of a genuine offensive. The employers are also
aware that boycotts have failed so they feel very confident. More
importantly, they know the union leadership will not do anything that
will challenge the law or the employers' rights. In other words,
they will not mobilize to shut down all the stores.

All in all it was one of the better turn outs from the CLC but it was
still dominated by staffers and a layer of regular activists.
Richard


Report from John Reimann. Expelled member of the carpenters union and leader of the North californian carpenters wildcat strike in 1999 and labors Militant Voice.

Today's protest at Safeway was a study in contrasts.

The Central Labor Council (CLC) put this one together along with the
state federation of labor. The turnout was a bit larger than the
previous one here - maybe up to 1000 this time.

Along with some others, we had been discussing carrying the rally
into the store, but we heard that the leadership was planning some
sort of civil disobedience. We heard that they didn't want us to
"upstage" them. We also heard that they were negotiating with the
cops, making a deal as far as how things were going to work.

We rallied first in a park about a mile away from the store. There
were several strikers who spoke and told their stories. Then we were
treated to listen to Ignacio de la Fuente, president of the Oakland
City Council. De la Fuente stated several times that the Oakland city
council was "pro business". Through some sort of twisted logic he
found a way to explain that he was still on the side of the unions in
this strike, though. I was standing next to a picket I know and
pointed out what he was saying. "How can he be for us and pro
busienss at the same time?" I asked. "Business takes its profit out
of our hide." He agreed with me of course. After a series of other
speeches, we started of marching. Half of the crowd was on the
siewalk on one side of the street; half on the other. An agreement
had been reached with the cops, you see, that we would not block
traffic.

The mood was pretty loud, despite the fact that we were split up. As
we marched, we were chanting. One chant as "Boycott... Safeway!" As
we got closer to the store, a couple of us took up the chant, but
with a slightly different wording. "SHUT DOWN... Safeway" we yelled.

This started to take hold around us and others started chanting the same.

Those of us in the Direct Action to Stop the War had agreed to go
into the store. This took place after a long debate within the group.
Originally the majority in this group argued adamantly that we should
do what the official leadership wanted us to do. However, in the park
at the start of the rally a couple of strikers came over, and they
directly said that they'd like us to go into the store.

So into the store we went, when we arrived there.

We were met with security who told us all that we were trespassing
and that we'd be arrested, but we marched on anyway, passing out
leaflets and chanting as we went.

Then an official of the CLC came rushing in. This is a guy who's
never been a rank and file member of any union. He's a private
investigator who works often for union lawyers and has been made a
member of some union or another in order to be able to serve on the
CLC. "You have to leave here; you're going to ruin everything," he
told us. "This is not part of the agreement we made." !!!

Yes he actually said this!

Anyway, we had all agreed that we were going to try to avoid arrests,
so we did leave the store. But there was this huge crowd outside the
store, standing in the parking lot chanting and yelling. Meanwhile, a
few customers walked in without being stopped. Then a few of us stood
in the doorway. We got a few more people to join us, and for a brief
moment we actually were phsically blocking people from entering. But
those who'd organized the event did nothing to get the crowd closer
to the doors, so eventually we had to abandon our blockade.

While all this was goingon, however, this large crowd was standing
outside chanting and making a huge racket. It was clear that a lot of
people were rally fired up. At one point a guy in a business suit
came out with a basket full of groceries he'd bought. People gathered
round him yelling "shame! shame!" He tried to get through the crowd,
but there was no exit. Then he tried to reverse course and get
through another way. I just happened to be standing right in his way.
He had one hell of a time getting round me, and even then, he had a
hard time maneuvering his cart over my foot.

Just as it seemed he might not get through at all, one of the
security guys stepped forward. When I say "security" I don't mean
store security - this was a security guy for the protest. Poetic
justice, I guess - this was a business representative for the
Carpeners Union. The business rep helped guide this scab through the
protest!

After almost an hour, a group of the leaders sat down in the middle
of the parking lot. This was all planned with the cops, who gently
led them away one-by-one. They were cited and released on the spot.
(We were told that their huge worry was that if we messed up their
deal, that they might have to spend the weekend in jail!!!)

Anyway, this was how it went here in Oakland. Huge potential, and
even greater failure by the union leadership. Of course, had they
really taken advantage of that potential - say by marching us all
into the store - it would have ruined their relationship with such
"friends" as de la Fuente. Lord save us from that disaster.

John Reimann.

From Sean O'Torain. Labors militant Voice.

Thank you John and Richard for your reports on the action in support of the grocery workers in California. In case anybody on this list is not clear the strike is in Southern California and the union leaders are bringing strikers and locked out workers up to Northern California, that is the San Francisco Bay Area, to put pickets on the grocery stores of the struck chains. But these pickets are only to ask customers not to shop in the stores meanwhile the unions members continue to work in the stores. Naturally the customers see little logic in this and feel little inclination to respond positively. This strategy of the union leaders is a strategy for defeat.

Here in Chicago yesterday there was a day long meeting of the Chicago Social Forum. One of the sessions at this was on organizing and the panel speakers were from the Service Employees Union, the Food and Commercial Workers, the Union of Needle trades and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The speakers were fulltime organizers with one exception and all were from the liberal wing of the union bureaucracy.

The speakers explained how nasty the employers were. Something that was not necessary at this meeting. The emphasis was on Walmart as the main enemy who was pushing the other employers to attack the workers. There was talk that "human greed was the root of all evil", that "corporate greed" was another problem. There was talk of one company wanting to be an "honorable company" . As I say this was all from the liberal wing of the union leadership. This was the introduction to the discussion.

I intervened in the discussion along the following lines. It was a complete waste of time to discuss the issue of organizing and the strike of the grocery workers unless we were prepared to discuss the role of the union leaders. The union leaders want to cooperate with the employers, they are afraid of mobilizing the rank and file, they believe there is no alternative to the bosses capitalist system and so they want to cooperate and help the union employers compete against the non union and to help the US employers compete against the non US employers. And not only that but when any determined opposition to these policies develops in the unions then these leaders smash these oppositions in the most ruthless fashion.

I spoke then directly to the union organizers who were present and who had spoken. I explained that when these vicious attacks on the more fighting oppositions takes place you guys, that is the liberal wing of the union bureaqucracy who were present, keep quiet and let the leaders crush the opposition. I asked these organizers directly to now at this meeting discuss the policies of the union leaders and the role these policies played in the defeats of the working class that are taking place and their own role in allowing the crushing of oppositions and the sell out of strikes such as P9, Staley lockout, the Detroit newspapers strike etc. .

An elderly lady then spoke up. Her husband she said is a member of the International Association of Machinists and the leadership of that union was taking action to crush and her husbands local because the local disagreed with the leaders policies. She wanted to hear some discussion on this.

The organizers made a few comments in response. Yes it is true there were a few bad leaders but the CEO of Walmart was worse. No organizations are perfect. But and this was repeated again and again by the organizers, there are now some unions prepared to organize, they were referring to the grouping around the Carpenters and the SEIU, and in general things have changed and things are now moving in the right direction. Again and again they said this things are now going in the right direction. This was their justification for keeping quiet about the role of the union bureaucracy.

The main left group at this meeting was the ISO. They allowed, in fact assisted these union organizers in covering up the role of the union leaders and in avoiding the debate that has to be held. It is clear that they view their relationship with the liberal wing of the union bureaucracy as more important than their relationship with the striking workers such as in the grocery workers strike now and many of whom are loosing their homes because of the role of the union leaders.

The grocery workers strike is about taking away health care from all workers. The present strategy of the union leaders in trying to give major concessions, in refusing to bring all the chains out on strike, and in refusing to raise the struggle for a single payer health care system for all, this will lead to defeat. The union leaders and organizers, the right wing and the liberal wings of the bureaucracy have to be engaged in debate and struggle and oppositions have to be built in the unions to oppose and replace these leaderships. It is interesting to note that two of the candidates for the presidential nomination of the capitalist Democratic Party are campaigning for a single payer health care system for all but the union leaders neither the right wing or the liberal version are prepared to do so. These two capitalist politicians are to the left of the union leaders on this issue.

The issue is simple. The employers, the capitalists are on an all out offensive against the working class. Wages, health care, safety, etc are all under attack. The working class is being driven back by this offensive. The union leaders accept and collaborate with this offensive except that they plead that the attacks be a little less severe and less immediate. When union members demand all out opposition to the bosses offensive they are told by their leaders, the right and the liberal version alike that they have to be "realistic" that capitalism rules and that is that. And if union members refuse to accept this defeatist policy and organize to change it then the union leaders organize to crush them. John Reimann whose report is included here was expelled for life from the carpenters union for being elected the leader of the 1999 carpenters strike in North California. One of the speakers at yesterdays meeting is in the Service Employees union which is now in cahoots with the carpenters union and according to the SEIU speaker the unions are now going in the right direction and I do not expect this union leader to raise with the carpenters leaders the rights of John Reimann and why he was expelled.


Sean O'Torain. Chicago Labors Militant Voice.
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