Missteps Hurt Union in Supermarket Strike

[La_Serpiente]

Missteps Hurt Union in Supermarket Strike

Hoisting banners and American flags, hundreds of AFL-CIO members rallied on Wall Street last week in a show of support for the 4-month-old California supermarket strike.

Stock analysts hardly noticed. They were more interested in the message delivered the day before, when three grocery companies flatly rejected a United Food and Commercial Workers union proposal that the contract dispute be submitted to binding arbitration.

That episode revealed "increasing weakness in position" on the part of the UFCW, Lisa Cartwright of brokerage Smith Barney wrote to clients as the union activists, bundled up against the cold, assembled near the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). She didn't mention them.

The Wall Street fumble was the latest misstep in a strike that has been criticized as lacking a clear, consistent and forceful strategy. Unlike the three-week-long walkout by Los Angeles janitors in 2000, which is studied by scholars for its innovation and successful outcome, the supermarket strike is likely to be remembered for its miscalculations, academics and other observers said.

more...

Missteps Hurt Union in Supermarket Strike

[arko]

1. Not the first time

The food handlers have a poor track record. Unless I'm mistaken they are the same bunch that botched a strike at a Tyson's plant.

They had a secret meeting because they couldn't get enough of the plant employees to vote for the strike so they cherry picked a qorum and voted to strike. Lacking popular support they couldn't even get a handful of pickets.

To make matters worse they bused in professional pickets from out of state. That failed as well and turned the employees against the union. To compound their previous mistakes they decided to since the plant made product for McDonald's to picket McDonald's instead of the plant.

The final result was a decertification vote.

The membership has to start holding the union leadership accountable. The leaders also need to be held accountable for the declining membership, its been too easy for them to dodge the blame.