..If you want a positive life-changing experience of solidarity, now is your opportunity: join the picket lines at a local Shaw’s Market!
Late last week, I got requests from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Boston Branch (and others, including Jobs With Justice) to support the striking workers at Shaw’s Warehouse in Methuen. It seems that negotiations between Shaw’s and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 791 broke down when management made its second insanely substandard contract offer in a row. The contract would require workers to pay so much for their employer-based health insurance that they would have to choose between insurance and food/rent. And that’s not even mentioning what the agreement would do to pensions, seniority, etc.. The roughly 300 workers had no choice but to go out on strike. Those workers who live in New Hampshire would probably lose their insurance altogether if the contract went through, while those in Massachusetts would qualify for a government-subsidized plan after a waiting period. Health insurance is a much bigger issue than wage raises and cuts at this point, because, unlike Europeans and Canadians, US workers do not have national health insurance and mostly rely on employers providing it.
This week, I spent a few hours on the picket line at the Shaws market at Royal Ridge in South Nashua NH as a volunteer from my union. The first time I showed up, I was greeted with one of the warmest hugs I’ve ever experienced. I got to talk with the men about their lives. One had a sick wife, another was raising a child he adopted from the streets. Most were about my age or a few years younger. The problems they described with credit, health care and making ends meet in this economy were quite similar to the ones I’ve experienced in recent years.
I could identify with their work situation, because I had worked as a temporary part-timer at a huge food warehouse in Colorado many years ago and had joined the union workers on the picket line when they went on strike, rather than scabbing, as some of the part-timers did. I was reminded of that experience recently when I read about the attempts, during the last year, of management of the three big food warehouses in Colorado to force acceptance of a bad contract on UFCW local 7 workers. The union there won a few concessions from management during a year of negotiations and avoided a strike, but some workers want to kick the local union president out for accepting contract provisions that hurt workers badly. UFCW has serious flaws as an organization, but it has protected and supported workers in a number of crucial ways, and it needs our help now.
The picket line seemed to be keeping shoppers away from the Shaw’s store quite effectively, and a lot of drivers were pulling over and talking with the workers or honking in solidarity.
There is obviously a national trend at work here, and the aim of management seems to be to reduce the living standards of these highly experienced warehouse workers to the level of Wal-Mart workers. From what the workers on the picket line told me, the company was about to invest millions in upgrades to the warehouse in Methuen. Currently, they have all but emptied the warehouse, which specializes in perishable produce, rather than bring in scabs, but that could change: the proposed contract provides for hiring non-union part-timers, which is obviously meant as a foot-in-the-door. At the moment, the company is obviously taking huge losses in income to pursue this contract action against the union.
The workers are trying to keep up their spirits, but you won’t believe how much the solidarity of people from other unions and the general public means to them. Spending a while on the picket line will open your eyes and will be an unforgettable experience if you just make the small effort of going down to one of the stores in the southern NH or Boston areas and volunteering. Call 774-568-0791 for information on where, other than the Royal Ridge stores, pickets are happening.
While money is needed, and a strike fund has been set up, human presence is even more needed. Whether or not you can spare time to join the picket line, you can send a check payable to the “UFCW Local 791 Methuen D.C. Strike Fund” to
UFCW Local 791
55 Norfolk Avenue
South Easton, MA 02375
and you can send a message of support from this website: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/supportstrikingshawsworkers..…...