United Food and Commercial Workers Local 135 rallied around 100 members and supporters in San Diego on Feb. 28 to kick off their fight for a new fair union contract for Kroger grocery workers. Unions and organizations such as the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, Cal Fire Local 2881, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, United Domestic Workers, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, as well as individual supporters from the community, participated in the demonstration.
UFCW Local 135 has a membership of around 12,500 workers along with 7,000 retirees. Local 135 is composed of grocery, retail, health, pharmacy, dental, meat, sugar, casino and cannabis workers.
Union leaders, grocery workers and the mayor addressed the crowd outside Ralph’s on Sports Arena Blvd. Then, participants picketed in front of the store entrance.
During his opening remarks, UFCW 135 President Todd Walters told the crowd, “These workers professionally feed your families and our communities. They go to work every day: holidays, Saturdays, Sundays, overnight shifts, early morning shifts.”
Walters also alluded to the fact that while Kroger bosses and even most other working-class people are eating dinner or sleeping at home with their families, many grocery workers are restocking shelves, sanitizing the store, and taking inventory of the many thousands of items on the shelves and in the back. This work is complicated by supply and staff shortages, which are rooted in and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite these conditions and skyrocketing inflation, these essential workers were offered a measly 55 cent pay increase by Kroger. The current contract for UFCW Local 135 workers expires on March 6.
Liberation News spoke with John Reil, a UFCW Local 135 retiree, who expressed the importance of community in supporting workers’ demands for a significant pay increase: “They need the support of other unions, the community … to get the contract they need here.”
Reil continued, “Before, the companies wouldn’t negotiate a contract for months after the contract expired. This year … they already have 2,000 signs made up to strike and they’re telling the company, if they aren’t serious about the contract on the table — on the wages, benefits and retirement — [the workers are] going to strike!”
The solidarity between the grocery workers and the community was on full display during the picket as passersby and cars honked and cheered on the union demonstration.
Jessica Lopez, a UFCW Local 135 member and Vons grocery worker, told Liberation News how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted her workplace. Lopez said, “A lot of times you go into work, you’re kind of dreading the situation. … People are constantly quitting because the pay doesn’t match the job. Why work this hard for this [little], when I can go somewhere else, get paid more and not have to work as hard?”
Lopez also spoke about the importance of ending two-tier health benefits, stating, “We’ve got a lot of single mothers, single parents out there. They need good healthcare for their kids.”
As John Reil said, workers hope for a fair union contract, but are ready to go on strike if the situation warrants it. UFCW 135 President Todd Walters echoed this sentiment: “Oregon had a two-day strike, walked away with a huge raise. Colorado had an 11-day strike, walked away with a huge raise. Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t want to strike, but God damn it, we’re going to get some money!”
Featured image: Todd Walters addresses the crowd. Liberation photo
