Strike out of sight, not out of mind

Two weeks ago, UCLA students rallied with strikers at the
Westwood Ralphs and showed their support at an informational forum
on the Hill. One week ago, the supermarket union moved strikers
from Ralphs locations to Vons and Albertsons stores.

With the relocation, it has been difficult for students to show
their constant support of strikers in the upcoming weeks, but many
said they will still be supporting the strike through less visible
means.

Picketers have been on strike since Oct. 11 in protest of a new
contract, which decreases medical benefits by 50 percent and
mandates that employees pay weekly amounts of $5 for an individual
and $15 for a family to receive health care.

Teamsters, supermarkets and mediators met on Monday to negotiate
the contract, but no clear statement has been made about the
meeting results.

In a rally on Oct. 29, roughly 40 UCLA students supported
strikers by entering Ralphs separately and filling grocery carts
with merchandise. The students did not buy the merchandise.
Instead, they chanted inside the store and on the streets with
picketers.

The student demonstrators, who are members of the Student Worker
Front ““ a coalition of various student groups ““ planned
to continue the rallies daily.

But on Oct. 31, the United Food and Commercial Workers union
closed picket lines at Ralphs and moved picketers to Vons and
Albertsons. UFCW is encouraging people to shop at Ralphs rather
than cross picket lines at the other two chains.

Yousef Tajsar, a past rally organizer and a member of the ASUCLA
board of directors, said rallies will continue, just not
regularly.

“So far, we can’t support the picket lines every
day, but on specific days, we plan to get rides to go to
Vons,” he said.

The Student Worker Front also plans to hold a large rally on
Nov. 22. It is scheduled to be at a Vons in Santa Monica.

Tajsar said even though Vons and Albertsons are not as close to
UCLA as Ralphs, students are still energetic in supporting
strikers. He attributed the involvement to the approach of the
holidays, saying people do not want families to suffer during the
holiday season.

Other students, such as fourth-year anthropology and history
student Ben Angulo, aided strikers in other ways.

Angulo organized a grocery store strike forum on Oct. 28 to
raise student awareness surrounding picket lines. Angulo said that
because of midterms and finals, he is not currently planning
anything else.

Debbie Carreon, a part-time worker at both Albertsons and
UCLA’s De Neve dining hall, said she noticed student presence
at picket lines diminish after strikers were moved from Ralphs. But
she still feels an overall attitude of support among students does
exist.

One professor encouraged students to become involved in the
strike before Ralphs strikers were relocated.

Ruth Milkman, a co-professor of the General Education cluster
“Work, Labor and Social Justice in the U.S.,” gave
students an extra-credit assignment to interview strikers, hoping
to increase student interest in labor.

Milkman’s assignment encouraged some of her students to
back the union’s efforts even after the strikers were no
longer visible at Ralphs.

One such supporter is Shadi Doroud-gar, a chemistry student
taking Milkman’s class. She plans to back strikers by not
shopping at Albertsons, Ralphs or Vons and by voicing her opinions
online.

But other students remained less enthusiastic about the
strike.

History student Ian Sangster complimented some strikers for
their lack of anger toward temporary workers and those who crossed
the picket lines, but he was hesitant to fully support the
strike.

“I don’t want to judge, since there could be extreme
measures involved that neither I nor the workers know (anything)
about,” Sangster said.

Sangster plans to continue shopping at all three grocery
stores.