Strikers’ call for health care necessary, a right for all people

As the strike at Vons and Albertsons continues into its eighth
week, we absolutely must continue to support the striking workers,
and send a message that the issue of health care is important not
just for supermarket workers, but for all Californians as well.

In many ways, my support for the strikers comes from my intimate
knowledge of the often difficult conditions in which they work.
When I was 16, one of my earliest jobs was working at a
neighborhood Alpha Beta supermarket, a chain that was swallowed up
years later in subsequent buyouts and mergers in the early
’90s.

Working part-time during the school year, and even longer hours
during the summer, I took all the worst shifts, often working
holidays and night shifts as I tried to save my minimum wage income
for college. During that time, I pushed shopping carts, bagged
groceries, go-backed goods (returned unwanted goods back to the
shelves) and compacted cardboard boxes.

During the year I worked at the store, I got to know the other
workers pretty well. They were young students like myself, other
young adults, married folks supporting their families and even
elderly people working to earn a living. The store even hired
people with disabilities, giving them a meaningful occupation and
opportunity to succeed. In a way, the supermarket had a very
inclusive sense of family to me, consisting of all ages, races and
creeds.

I remember a lot of the positive aspects from those days, but
there were also many problems related to the health issues that we
faced. Many of the cashiers were elderly women who had to lift and
scan heavy grocery items. Because of the repetitive lifting
involved, many suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome, and had to
wear arm braces to ameliorate the pain.

Safety was an ever-present issue. People who worked in
restocking or in the meat, poultry or deli sections had to be
careful not to cut themselves on box cutters or meat-slicing
machines. In the back of the store, employees had to receive
special training in order to lift large grocery items on wood
palettes by forklift. Even when baling cardboard boxes, employees
had to take special precautions to avoid being hurt while using the
compression machine.

In observing all these things, I saw firsthand that supermarket
employees faced a range of issues specifically related to health
and workplace safety.

Even I was not free from work-related health problems. After
months of working there, I developed a benign cyst in my left hand
from the repetition of pushing shopping carts back into the store.
It turned out that the plastic in the carts was rubbing against the
bones in my hand and had accumulated into a pearl-shaped mass of
scar tissue. I had to have this cyst surgically removed and still
bear the scar today. Despite the many hours I worked, I
wasn’t eligible for health insurance and was luckily covered
by my mom’s health insurance for this procedure.

After all these years, I can see today that the current
supermarket strikers are fighting for the same things that were
issues of concern for me all those years ago. And, contrary to the
paid advertisements being put out by the grocery stores in local
newspapers, the health benefits workers would receive under the new
contract are anything but substantial.

The new contract would force increasing health costs over time
onto the backs of employees, and new hires would be effectively cut
off from any real coverage. This shifting of the burden of health
care comes at a time when the supermarkets have continued to grow
and have no fiscal excuse for being so callous to their
workers’ health needs.

Despite the rising costs of health care (which is a problem in
itself), I believe the supermarkets can more than afford to pay for
these increases. And just as importantly, they have a moral
obligation to do so considering the inherent health risks in the
occupation.

In the face of the upcoming holiday season, it is of the utmost
importance to continue to support the strikers by refusing to shop
at Vons and Albertsons. Holding the integrity of the picket lines
is a time-honored tradition and means of demonstrating moral
support for the strikers’ position.

There is a growing concern for rising health costs. By
supporting the picket lines, you not only support the strikers, but
are standing for a greater moral position: All people have a right
to affordable health care for themselves and for their families.
And if you do support the strikers, please remember a slogan from
the advertisements of the old Alpha Beta supermarket and
“tell a friend.”

Yokota is a graduate student in Asian American
Studies.