Subj:   PT/TP 11-03 Health care at heart of California labor battles
Date:   11/11/03 11:56:11 PM Eastern Standard Time
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        People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
                  Vol. 30 No. 15/ November, 2003

                 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL  60654
                       http://www.lrna.org

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 HEALTH CARE AT HEART OF CALIFORNIA LABOR BATTLES

by Marshall Blesofsky and Cynthia Cuza

The health care crisis is at the heart of the major labor battles
being waged in Southern California. Considered by many an
inalienable right of  employment, health benefits are under attack
as employers demand that workers  pay more for a reduced level of
health care. "You could call it a race to the  bottom," said Kent
Wong, director of the University of California at Los  Angeles
Center for Labor Research and Education (Los Angeles  Times).

Fighting the employers' drive to slash labor expenses by cutting
benefits and wages, Metropolitan Transit Authority mechanics,
supported by 6000  bus drivers and clerks, have brought Los
Angeles   mass transportation to a  standstill. Supermarkets are
almost empty as customers respect the picket lines  set up by
70,000 members of United Food and Commercial Workers, who struck
against the Vons and Pavillions food stores and were immediately
locked out by  Ralphs and Albertsons in a strategy of solidarity
among the largest supermarket  companies.

Reduced health benefits are equivalent to a pay cut. The
supermarkets are also demanding that workers accept a wage freeze,
reduced  pension benefits, substantially lower wages and benefits
for new hires, and the  right to open nonunion stores.

Fulltime supermarket workers, who now earn  a top wage of $17.90
an hour, are barely holding on to a "middle class" life.  Most
supermarket workers earn much less. A mother of three, sole
provider for  her family, picketing Ralphs at Third and La Brea,
is typical. She said that she  earned $6.95 an hour. She might
work as little as 25 hours a week, sometimes  more. She said what
kept her on the job was the health benefits.

Instead  of competing, the three major supermarket companies in
Southern California are  uniting in a strategy to drive their
workers into poverty. Steven Burd, chairman  and chief executive
of Safeway, Inc., owner of Vons and Pavillions, "is leading  the
industry's campaign to slash labor expenses" and break the back of
worker  resistance. He told analysts "I'm not troubled by [losses
from the strike] . . .  .We view this as an investment in our
future, and I'm confident that my  bargaining partners [Albertsons
and Kroger, parent company of Ralphs] view it  exactly the same
(quoted in the L.A. Times)." The future they see is modeled  after
Wal Mart, whose workers have no union, and earn less than $9 an
hour  without medical and retirement benefits.

While the employers are uniting  instead of competing, workers
face intense competition brought about by the  "robotic
revolution," as electronic technology becomes increasingly
effective in  replacing human labor in production, service and
retail employment. Robot wages  are zero. This is the real race to
the bottom. Wal Mart wages are just a stop on  the way down to
permanent unemployment, poverty and homelessness if the employers
have their way.

In the battle for human rights, in the battle  for the hearts and
minds of the American people, all the winning cards are in  the
hands of the people. The capitalist class is bankrupt. Their greed
is  insatiable. Last year, Safeway CEO Steve Burd was paid a
salary of $1 million  with a bonus of $258,000, or about $605 per
hour (L.A. Times). He couldn't  survive on $17.90 an hour. Yet he
demands that others live on far  less.

Last year, Safeway's annual sales totaled $32 billion, with an
estimated profit of nearly $1.28 billion, according to the L.A.
Times. Kroger,  one of the largest supermarket chains in the
country, owner of Ralphs and Food 4  Less in Southern California,
reported a gross profit margin of 26.39 percent  with total sales
of $12.4 billion in the second quarter of this year (Kroger  press
release).

Drug companies and medical insurance companies are  notorious for
their huge profits. While elderly patients on fixed income are
forced to choose between food and medicine, their insurance
companies squander    as much as 30 cents of every premium dollar
on enormous CEO salaries,  shareholder profits, advertising and
administration (The Labor Party Just Health  Care Campaign,
www.justhealthcare.org).

People are supporting the  strikers. Customers aren't crossing the
picket lines, and picketers everywhere  are greeted by a stream of
horn honking cars as drivers wave in solidarity. This  is a good
beginning.

More is needed. New conditions created by new  technology require
new means of fighting. Unions can't go it alone, just  fighting
for their own workers. Now is the time to do something different--
not  just fight to help restore what the employers are trying to
take away, but to  take up the fight for health care as an
inalienable right for everyone. Workers  need a political program
and a political party independent of the  employers.

The Labor Party (www.thelaborparty.org) is this party. Its program
calls for  economic justice, to amend the Constitution to
guarantee everyone a job at a  living wage, and it calls for
guaranteed universal access to quality health  care. The Labor
Party Just Health Care campaign (www.justhealthcare.org) is the
banner to unite all workers  on strike with the 44.3 million
uninsured, with veterans fighting the cutback of  funding for
veteran health care, with the 47 million Medicaid recipients whose
benefits are being slashed, with everyone who needs health care
now or in the  future.

Now is the time to demand quality health care as a right. Support
the strikes. Join the fight for guaranteed universal access to
quality health  care.



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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 30 No. 15/ November, 2003; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email: [log in to unmask]; http://www.lrna.org
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
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