The United Food and Commercial Workers union deserves our
support. They are facing incredibly long odds, fighting a battle
against obstinate supermarket corporations with a strike that needs
no justification by economic theory.
These are hard-working people, defending not only their health
care benefits but also their standard of living. The last thing
they need are customers crossing lines and undermining the effort
to keep what’s theirs.
UFCW’s chances seem very grim. The supermarket industry is
fiercely competitive and firms face very thin profit margins, which
means that stores earn very little on every dollar sold. Because of
this, these companies face large problems if their expenses
increase even by a small amount, which is exactly what has been
occurring over the past few years in the form of skyrocketing
medical costs.
In terms of economics, the 70,000-strong UFCW faces a truly
difficult situation. “They certainly have an uphill struggle
because market pressure is going to force the stores to have some
kind of cost saving, and it is hard to see where it’d come
from other than labor costs,” says Dominic Brewer, a UCLA
professor and labor economist.
The economic reality is that costs for all employers are rising
because of the ever-increasing costs of medical care in the United
States. Someone has to pay for that cost increase.
Most likely, it will be a mix of employees and employers, plus
consumers. “The idea that employees shouldn’t share
some health care costs is a bit old-fashioned,” says
Brewer.
Indeed, UFCW’s old contract includes full family health
care for no premium, a benefit so rare that only 4 percent of large
firm employees receive such a benefit in the entire country,
according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey cited in the Los
Angeles Times.
So an economic argument on the union’s side is almost
non-existent. But as a moral question for you, the customer, there
could not be a clearer answer: Crossing strike lines is wrong.
The most valuable part of the union’s old contract is that
workers receive full family health insurance without having to pay
a premium. The L.A. Times reports that under the
corporations’ new contract proposals, “Workers could
lose dental and vision benefits and might have to pay 50 percent of
the cost of doctor visits, drugs and hospital stays. Union members
also would have to contribute to premiums for the first
time.”
To put it another way, these people are fighting for their own
piece of the American dream: a house, food on the table and health
care when it is needed. If someone tried to steal away your
standard of living, you would picket too.
Crossing picket lines completely undermines the effectiveness of
a strike, which derives power from its ability to hinder the
employer. It does this in two ways: by taking away the
employer’s staff and, more importantly, by driving business
away. The first weapon can only last so long; as scabs learn to do
their jobs, supermarket operations can return to normal levels. The
second part is where the strike’s true strength lies.
An article in the L.A. Times reports that if the strike lasts
three weeks, the companies could lose $20 million to $40 million
each in this quarter’s earnings.
If the workers are to win the fight to maintain their standard
of living, you as a customer cannot cross picket lines. Realize
that this is, as Wong put it, “a high stakes
campaign.”
Your crossing of the picket lines has a very real effect on the
strike’s outcome and, thus, on the very lives of union
members. Every dollar Ralphs earns during the walkout only
emboldens it to wait out the strike; if that happens, these workers
and their families will have been kicked out of the middle class,
with the help of anyone who crossed the picket lines.
Union workers already face a nearly impossible fight. The last
thing they need is for you to cross picket lines and cut their legs
out from under them.
On a side note, if you need a place to buy food, I suggest Palms
Market near the corner of Palms Boulevard and Motor Avenue. They
have ridiculously low prices and a butcher.
Raimundo is a fourth-year economics and history student.
E-mail him at araimundo@media.ucla.edu.