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Stakes rising in California strike

A strike by more than 70,000 supermarket staff in California is intensifying, with a policy of civil disobedience and the intervention of everyone from religious leaders and Hollywood stars to right-wing think tanks.

The outcome of the strike is seen as crucial to the future of the union movement, many of whose members have rallied in support in the Los Angeles area.

The workers, from 852 stores, have now been on strike for 110 days in a dispute over plans by supermarket chains in the state's south to end provisions for health insurance and other benefits.

Christian, Jewish and Muslim clerics supporting the strikers descended on the home of the chief executive of Safeway, Steve Burd, in Alamo, northern California, to urge him to reopen negotiations. At the same time, 20 strikers and supporters were arrested outside a supermarket in Long Beach for refusing to move in the latest in a series of acts of civil disobedience.

The strikes and lockouts, which involve the Vons and Pavilions stores, both owned by Safeway, as well as the chains Albertsons and Ralphs, were prompted by the supermarkets' decision to cut health benefits. The chains say they were forced to make the reduction after being undercut by non-union firms, most notably Wal-Mart, which pay minimal wages and benefits and can thus charge less for goods.

Unionized workers are paid higher than their non-unionized counterparts. As a result, according to the investment bank UBS Warburg, groceries at non-union stores are 17 percent to 39 percent cheaper.

The dispute also has huge significance for the union movement, with organizers saying that a defeat for the strikers could embolden many other employers. For this reason, big unions such as the Teamsters and the Longshoremen have thrown their weight behind the industrial action.

"We are on the the frontline of a war," Ellen Anreder, spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers, said yesterday. She added that the supermarkets had seen a 91 percent increase in profit over the past three years and could well afford to continue to pay health insurance.

The last negotiations took place on Dec. 19 and there are no plans for talks.

A few strikers have returned to work under different names but the picketlines have held firm, with the supermarkets losing hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.

Actors Martin Sheen, Danny Glover and Janeane Garofalo have lent support, and the talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres said she would not cross picketlines.

Dennis Kucinich, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has also backed the campaign.
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