Grocery workers glad to be returning

Jenny Marder

After 141 days on the picket line, Surf City’s strike-weary grocery

workers will return to their jobs this week.

The bitter dispute ended Sunday, when grocery workers voted

overwhelmingly to ratify an agreement reached by the United Food and

Commercial Workers union and the company that operates Vons,

Pavilions, Albertsons and Ralphs supermarkets.

Union members voted 85% in favor of the labor contract at polling

places throughout Los Angeles and Orange County.

“I feel very good about [the contract,]” said Patrick Adkins, who

will soon return to his job as a grocery clerk at the Albertsons

Market on Beach Boulevard and Adams Avenue. “The thing about it is

that -- from what the company had offered us in the very beginning,

which was an absolutely horrible contract that was nowhere near what

we had voted on -- it not only set us back but would have set back

middle class families all across the nation.”

The union called on thousands of workers from Vons and Pavilions

markets to walk out of their jobs on Oct. 11 in a massive protest of

health care cuts and pension rollbacks. The next day, Ralphs and

Albertsons locked out employees.

Now, nearly five months later, union members are lauding the final

contract as a success.

“The workers in this labor dispute were fighting to protect

affordable health care, their pensions and job security,” said Ellen

Anreder, spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers

Union. “These three goals were accomplished in the new agreement,

indicating that the workers’ struggle and sacrifice were worthwhile.”

Calls made to officials at Ralphs and Albertsons were not

returned.

Adkins said he feels good about the agreement and proud of the

workers who stuck it out until the end.

“We set a precedent for other people for a long strike in

general,” he said. “Anyone that belongs to a union is going to look

at the fight we fought and say ‘wow, these guys stuck it out for the

longest time.’”

As a picket captain, Adkins developed a mantra that he would use

to boost morale among his workers.

“It used to be ‘one day longer and one day stronger,’ but later I

shortened it to ‘stronger for life,’ because that’s what I feel that

I am,” Adkins said.

But Adkins, father of a 3-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, said

that it wasn’t easy.

“It was really tough for everyone on the line, not just me

exclusively,” Adkins said. “I’ve seen people that have gone hungry,

lost their vehicles and had to ride a bicycle to the picket line You

have people that have lost a lot and people that are standing in food

lines when they normally wouldn’t have been standing in food lines.

It was hard.”

The unions were able to defend health insurance and pension for

veteran workers. New hires, however, will receive substantially less

benefits and lower wages.

“That’s one thing that’s a shame,” Adkins said. “We, as a union

... are trying to have an equality and equal pay with others.”