By Abby Arnold Santa Monica
The SMDP’s Oct. 16 edition had a headline that had no correspondence to the facts of the story. Although your page five headline said “Strikers demand better benefits,” the story said that workers at local grocery stores want a new contract that “keeps health and retirement benefits at their current levels...”
Your article also failed to note that only the Vons workers are on strike. Union members who work at Albertsons and Ralph’s are not permitted to work by management as long as the union is striking Vons. Picketers in front of Albertsons and Ralph’s are “locked out.” They are not on strike.
As a picketing clerk at the Lincoln Boulevard Ralph’s explained to my children, the grocery clerks and corporate management are fighting over whether the workers will have to pay more for their benefits.
The outcome will be a precedent for every other family that receives health insurance as a part of an employment compensation package. (Editor’s note: On page five, second column, the story states that Albertsons and Ralphs locked out their employees because executives consider a strike against one company a strike against all three).
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 17, 2003. Read the original PDF.