Striking a blow: Shoppers grow weary of intimidation
By JAMIE WETHERBE Special to the Daily Press
While they contend morale is still high, the enduring tensions and worries that accompany a four-month strike are beginning to take a toll on the embattled grocery store workers walking the picket lines each day.
Increasing concerns about finances and job security have coincided with reports of increasingly aggressive tactics to dissuade shoppers from breaking the lines and dividing the union.
If picketers choose to harass shoppers — the more memorable the experience — and the less likely shoppers will be to continue to cross the picket lines, said Richard Cowan, the secretary and treasurer for Santa Monica’s Unified Food and Commercial Workers Union.
“Customers will give every cock-eyed excuse (for crossing the picket lines),” he said, adding that those who do choose to cross only While many of the city’s residents have supported the union’s effort, serving as allies, others are reportedly being targeted as union-busters, or enemies.
Maria Molina said she was recently harassed upon leaving Vons at Lincoln Boulevard and Broadway with a full cart. “(The strikers) said I was stupid and a moron.” recalled Molina, who added that she usually does shop elsewhere in order to avoid the consternation and verbal jabs of picketers, “but we have to eat and we can’t go to restaurants all the time.”
Jennifer Gibson, who is walking the line outside the Albertsons at Lincoln and Ocean Park boulevards where she is employed as a clerk, doesn’t hold much sympathy for shoppers the likes of Molina.
“The shoppers coming in and crossing the picket lines just don’t care,” she said.
Gibson said that she has asked customers who do cross the line to shop at other grocery stores, including Ralphs — where the picket lines have been pulled — or Trader Joe’s. While picketers don’t view this as harassment, she contends, some customers apparently do.
“It’s too much of a hassle,” said Mary Beth Irwin, adding that she only crosses the picket lines when she has an emergency or needs something for her baby. “It’s ridiculous. (The strike) has gone on way too long.”
“People feel guilty for going to the supermarket.” — care about convenience
“They really don’t care about anyone else.”
The frustration of picketers finding themselves pinching pennies as the contentious grocery store strike stretches into its fourth month is understandable.
Gibson said she’s used to making more than $130 a day as an Albertsons clerk, a job she’s held for about eight years. Like many grocery workers on strike since October, she’s been earning just $40 a day — a maximum of $240 a week — on the picket line.
“We’ve had a lot of people lose their house or car,” she said this week, adding that the union has started offering loans in order to keep the strikers above water, at least temporarily.
“I’m very fortunate. My sister is my landlord,” Gibson said. “She lets me pay what I’ve got.”
Gibson said picketers are also making ends meet through help from the city and its residents. Food banks have donated groceries, and some Santa Monicans have dropped by with cash donations or even an occasional lunch.
Despite this extra assistance, there has been some inevitable break in the ranks, as some picketers have left the lines for other jobs. While Gibson estimates her store has lost approximately 25 percent of their picketers, Santa Monica union officials estimate a member-loss of less than 5 percent overall. One silver lining for area strikers is that they are under less pressure than their counterparts outside of the city’s borders. While some unions have cut back on strikers’ benefits, Cowan said this isn’t the case for Santa Monica’s union — which also covers parts of Malibu, Culver City and West Los Angeles.
However, Cowan admits the union may have to cut back on medical benefits down the road.
The picketing of hundreds of Vons, Ralphs, Pavilions and Albertsons stores has affected thousands of workers in Southern and Central California, a strike which mainly resulted from health care discrepancies between the unions and supermarket corporations.
Still, most picketers walking the line insist morale is still high.
“The strike will last one day longer than (the grocery stores) want it to last,” said Bruno Raineri, 56, who’s been working in the produce department at Vons for 40 years.
“The strike will last one day longer than (the grocery stores) want it to last.” — — BRUNO RAINERI Vons employee
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 31, 2004. Read the original PDF.