Leave No Worker Behind

Ruth Rosen,

San Francisco Chronicle January 30, 2004

Cynthia Hernandez, a petite and pretty 21-year-old grocery worker, felt
exhilarated, rather than weary, after traveling by bus from Los Angeles
to Northern California. Riding with her were her 2-year-old daughter, 50
other union members and religious leaders of all denominations from
Southern California.

She was part of the "Grocery Workers’ Justice Pilgrimage," representing
70,000 workers who have been striking Safeway and have been locked out
from other Southern Californian supermarkets for the last four months.
They’re struggling to keep their health-care benefits, a problem that
will eventually affect many middle-class workers.

The pilgrimage journeyed north to persuade Steven Burd, president,
chairman and CEO of Safeway, who lives in Alamo, to return to the
negotiating table. Knowing that Burd is a devout evangelical Christian,
religious leaders hoped to "change his heart" and to appeal to the faith
he professes.

They also came to deliver 10,000 cards — written by shoppers, children
and congregants — that asked Burd to resume bargaining until labor and
management reach a fair settlement that protects the health care of all
workers.

As the bus arrived in Alamo on a chilly but sunny morning Wednesday,
they were warmly greeted by Northern Californian religious leaders and
community supporters. Together, they held a prayer vigil in front of
Alamo’s Safeway.

"Mr. Burd, lift up your eyes and see the people who are suffering, "
said a rabbi. "We need affordable health care," said a minister. After
each religious leader spoke, the crowd of several hundred chanted, "Do
not close your ears to the cry of the needy."

The 4-month-old strike has, in fact, devastated the lives of many
workers, some of whom have lost their homes and had their cars
repossessed. Many can no longer feed their families and are deeply in
debt. "I don’t know how I’ll pay the rent next month," Hernandez told
me. "I have nothing left."

Then, the peaceful crowd marched toward Burd’s home, chanting "Health
care now!" To their delight, passing drivers honked in solidarity and a
few neighbors rushed out of magnificent homes to offer unexpected words
of support.

Because only a small delegation of religious leaders were allowed to
climb the private road to the gated Alamo Ridge community, the striking
workers never saw the wooded forests and rolling hills that shelter the
15 families who live in this exclusive enclave.

Stationed at the gate was Guy Worth, who would only describe himself as
"Mr. Burd’s personal representative," but who turned out to be a Safeway
security guard. He received the bins of cards and then, much to his
evident discomfort, found himself drawn into a prayer circle with
religious leaders.

On the way back, I asked Hernandez what we in Northern California should
understand about the grocery workers’ strike.

What happens to us," she said, "will happen to everyone else in the
country. If our strike is broken, then employers will know they can end
health care for all workers."

The grocery workers oppose Safeway’s effort to raise the amount they
must contribute to their health-care costs. The union also refuses to
accept a "two-tier" system in which future employees will receive lower
wages and benefits than current workers.

With a turnover rate of 30 percent a year, grocery workers would soon be
reduced to the kind of subsistence-level pay earned by nonunion workers
at Wal-Mart, which, says Safeway, is why the corporation, to stay
competitive, must curtail wages and benefits.

"It’s a race to the bottom," said Hernandez, as she wheeled her sleeping
daughter in her stroller. "If we 70,000 workers don’t get decent wages
and health-care benefits, some of us will end up on welfare and most of
us will use the public health care system. And who’s going to pay for
all these public services? The taxpayers, of course! Well, I don’t want
to live like that. Why shouldn’t our employer pay a living wage and
health benefits so that we can retain our dignity as workers?"

The Rev. Carol Been, a Lutheran minister in the Bay Area, echoed
Hernandez’s sense of urgency. "There’s a race to see which employer can
pay the least to its workers and the real issue, of course, is health
care."

The striking workers certainly know that. So, by the way, did voters in
New Hampshire’s primary, who told pollsters that health care was even
more important than the economy and the war in Iraq.

Workers such as Hernandez are desperately trying to hang on to their
middle-class dignity. They deserve our support. There, but for good
fortune, go the rest of us — and probably sooner than we may realize.