While most cheers heard on Saturday were in support of football
players, some students were cheering for a different reason.
Student labor activists cheered while they marched two miles
down Westwood and Santa Monica Boulevards on Saturday to rally with
union strikers at a nearby grocery store.
Because the United Food and Commercial Workers Union moved
picket lines from Ralphs to Vons and Albertsons, students had to
travel farther than before to support strikers.
The march began at the Bruin Bear in Bruin Plaza and ended at
the Vons on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Barrington
Avenue. It was organized by the Student Worker Front, a coalition
of several UCLA student groups.
Activists marched to support UFCW union strikers as they enter a
seventh week of protesting a contract they say would reduce health
care benefits.
Employers want to remodel health care benefits, and the UFCW
union says cutting healthcare would place financial responsibility
on taxpayers.
UFCW Secretary Treasurer Rich Cowan marched with students to
express the union’s appreciation of their concern. He
reiterated that UFCW will strike as long as it takes.
Negotiations opened for the first time in two weeks on Saturday
to discuss disagreements that have taken 70,000 Southern California
grocery clerks out of work, but no compromise has been made.
Yousef Tajsar, an event organizer and member of the ASUCLA Board
of Directors, carried a microphone to lead chants and speak to
passing cars. One hundred individuals participated in the march and
rally.
Fourth-year biochemistry student Danny Yaffe participated in the
march because his mother has worked at Ralphs for the last 30
years.
Though his father has a well-paying job, Yaffe’s
mother’s salary and benefits made life comfortable for the
family, he said.
“(My mom) has worked hard for that company, and they
aren’t working hard for her,” Yaffe said.
Other students and Westwood community members joined the
coalition as well. Some participants have family who work at
Albertsons, Ralphs or Vons. Others simply support health care
benefits.
Participants carried signs and distributed flyers to explain the
march to pedestrians. They cheered when cars honked in support and
danced to the rhythm of their chants.
Other individuals from surrounding communities expressed their
support for the nearly two-month long strike.
Mar Vista resident Marcus Africanus attended the march and rally
with other members from a protest group that formed when the United
States declared war on Iraq.
Africanus said the war and situation of strikers are similar
because he believed both are caused by corporate greed.
Some marchers walked in two lines, while other students walked
alongside the lines to keep the sidewalk open to other
pedestrians.
The group paused a block from Vons. They approached the store
chanting loudly and joined cheering strikers to walk in a circle on
the pavement in front of Vons.
Some activists set up speakers on the back of a pick-up truck so
march participants could speak. Speakers recalled past strike
successes as encouragement for strikers.
Other students acted out scenes portraying unjust treatment of
workers. The situations protested minimum wage, health care
decreases and lack of corporate appreciation of employees.
Participant John Hillson, whose union ““ the International
Association of Machinists ““ just accepted the same health
care plan that grocery employers proposed, marched to keep strikers
from receiving similar decreased benefits.
“The mere idea that corporations think they can deprive
employees like that is atrocious,” said Hillson. “It is
immoral and wrong.”
Students wanted to show support for strikers before the end of
the quarter. Since finals are not long after Thanksgiving, they
chose to march on Saturday, not minding that they would miss
UCLA’s football game against USC.
“We’re going to lose anyway,” said coalition
member Sarah Dereks.
UCLA students say they identify with strikers because of recent
tuition increases and healthcare decreases at the UCLA Ashe
Center.
Second-year biology student Steven Chang said he marched because
he sympathizes with strikers because his mother is an immigrant
worker who struggles to have healthcare benefits as well.
“Workers sometimes don’t know what laws or
protection to seek because of a language barrier, so they just
swallow the pain. That makes me more volatile,” Chang
said.