Solidarity comrades were involved in support for the California grocery workers' strike, but Solidarity members don't announce their presence as a "left group" of supporters distinct from other supporters, so few would know their presence by looking at rallies and picket lines.
A good deal of action alerts and articles about the strike have been posted to the marxism list (moderated by Louis Proyect): e.g., <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2003w45/msg00035.htm>, <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2003w44/msg00192.htm>, <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2003w48/msg00186.htm>, <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2003w50/msg00285.htm>, <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2003w50/msg00028.htm>, <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w04/msg00219.htm>, <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w01/msg00028.htm>, <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w05/msg00212.htm>.
Also, some action alerts posted at PEN-l (moderated by Michael Perelman), whose archive is available at <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/>.
I've noticed the Green Party's involvement as well: e.g., <http://greens.org/cal/westside/hot_issues/>, <http://lists.cagreens.org/pipermail/dmr-annc-freq/2004-January/000049.html>, & <http://la.indymedia.org/news/2004/01/100748.php>.
The Solidarity members' listserv is available to members/subscribers only -- see below for the latest on the topic:
>Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 16:56:44 -0500
>From: John Leslie
>Subject: More on the grocery strike
>
>More on the grocery strike. This concession contract has terrible
>implications for workers in the retail/service sector. The UFCW
>contract at ACME stores in Philly is up in April and a UFCW staffer
>has told me they expect attacks on their members health benefits. I
>think the case can be made for an aggressive united left campaign
>around national health care and the right to organize. //John K.
>*************************************************
>
>Posted on Fri, Feb. 27, 2004
>
>Grocers, strikers in accord
>
>By Jessica Guynn
>CONTRA COSTA TIMES
>
>Negotiators for supermarket companies and unions have reached a
>tentative agreement to end the nearly 5-month-old strike in Southern
>California and send thousands who have gone months without a
>paycheck back to work.
>
>The tentative agreement reached after 16 straight days of bargaining
>may not easily win the support of 59,000 union workers from San Luis
>Obispo to San Diego expected to vote on it this weekend because it
>cedes ground on the strike's two major sticking points.
>
>Unions had framed the labor dispute as a national struggle to
>preserve affordable health care and middle-class jobs. Supermarkets
>said they had to slash soaring employee health-care and other labor
>costs to compete against non-union discount chains such as Wal-Mart
>Stores Inc., now the nation's largest grocer.
>
>Safeway Inc. and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union would
>not disclose details of the agreement. But several sources said the
>unions agreed to a two-tier system that would pay new hires much
>less than current employees and would impose caps on how much the
>supermarkets would contribute to employees' health-care coverage.
>
>Unions claimed the tentative deal preserved affordable health care
>and maintains pensions.
>
>One union official contended both sides made concessions. Another
>described the agreement as "ugly."
>
>"The wild card in this whole thing is, Do the members ratify it?" he
>said. "At best the members are going to be disillusioned when they
>see the settlement. At worst they will be outraged."
>
>The two sides were close to an agreement all week, but had to work
>out smaller details. For instance, the unions wanted amnesty for
>workers who were fired, and the supermarkets wanted the unions to
>ask California Attorney General Bill Lockyer to drop an antitrust
>lawsuit over a mutual aid agreement the chains' crafted ahead of the
>strike.
>
>Union workers on a picket line in Los Osos celebrated but remained
>uneasy. "After five months, we're very excited," said Denise Matty,
>a Vons clerk walking the line with her husband. "But that could
>change if the contract is not good."
>
>Tami Aanerud, a Ralphs cashier in Los Osos, said she is hoping for a
>fair agreement. "I am sure that we are going to lose a little bit. I
>thought we would all along. But hopefully they will be fair with us."
>
>The impasse, the longest-running strike in UFCW history, exacted a
>huge financial toll: workers who could not pay their bills as they
>ran out of money and health insurance; grocers who lost as much as
>$2.5 billion in sales as shoppers avoided picket lines at more than
>800 stores.
>
>Unions and the supermarkets faced pressure to settle: unions from
>their members subsisting on dwindling strike fund pay; supermarkets
>from financial analysts and major investors.
>
>"The devil will lie in the details," UC Berkeley professor Harley
>Shaiken said. "This settlement will be closely watched by the rest
>of the supermarket industry but also by many other employers and
>unions throughout the country."
>
>The tentative settlement could have far-reaching implications for
>upcoming negotiations from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. Worker
>contracts affecting 250,000 employees across the country expire in
>the coming months.
>
>The southland dispute involving Safeway, which owns Vons and
>Pavilions, Albertson's Inc., and Kroger Co., which owns Ralphs, also
>gave Bay Area grocery unions a preview of the supermarkets' resolve
>to slash labor costs in September when their contract runs out.
>
>Unions here are girding for a big fight over health-care costs.
>Their target is Safeway, which led the charge in the industry's
>effort to corral labor costs in Southern California.
>
>"If you've got very determined union locals in Northern California
>and there is a lingering financial impact in Southern California,
>then that would put Safeway and the other companies in a weaker
>position to go for broke a second time around," Shaiken said.
>
>Art Pulaski, leader of the state AFL-CIO, said union and community
>organizers would suspend their plan to start a formal boycott this
>weekend in the Bay Area until the grocery workers in Southern
>California vote on the agreement. But, he said, the unions here will
>not back down.
>
>"Grocery workers in Northern California, who are not affected by
>this tentative agreement, are preparing to fight the same companies
>should they try to again dismantle family health care in September
>when their contracts expire," Pulaski said.
-- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>