Hitting home

Jenny Marder

It took Michael Wisniach more than an hour to buy enough food for a

small dinner Monday night.

“We’ve been to three stores today just to find hamburger buns,”

the frustrated Huntington Beach resident said.

Like many Surf City residents, Wisniach, 25, ventured from his

neighborhood market to the other side town to avoid crossing grocery

worker’s picket line. He stopped at Trader Joes and Poboys, before he

finally found what he was looking for at Stater Bros.

“I’m supporting the people, but I think it’s ridiculous that it’s

gotten to this point,” Wisniach said.

In the first retail clerk strike in Southern California in 25

years, union leaders called on thousands of workers to walk out of

their jobs Saturday night, in a massive protest of health care cuts,

pension rollbacks and lower wages for entry level employees. The

decision came after nearly two months of talks between leaders of the

United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the companies that

operate the Vons, Pavilions, Albertsons and Ralphs supermarket

chains.

Union members began striking at the two Vons markets in Huntington

Beach late Saturday. On Sunday, owners of Surf City’s five Ralphs and

five Albertsons stores locked out their workers.

The seven Southern California branches of the union filed a

$600-million lawsuit against Albertsons and Ralphs Tuesday for

violating a section of the labor code by failing to give workers

advance notice of the lockout.

Shelves were full and aisles were deserted at the Albertsons

market at the Seacliff Shopping Center, while lines of shoppers

snaked past the picked-over shelves at Stater Bros.

Trader Joes Market at the Five Points Plaza has also been swarming

with shoppers. About 50 people were crowded around the entrance when

the store opened Tuesday, Store Manager Mike Geyer said.

“It’s obvious that people are electing not to cross the picket

lines,” Geyer said.

All seven registers are open all day, lines are consistently five

shoppers deep and employees are stretching out their hours and

stocking like crazy to accommodate the flood of customers. The

highest demand is for fresh bread and dairy products, which seem to

vanish moments after they hit the shelves.

“It’s been mayhem,” Geyer said. “Everyone has decided to shop

here.”

Since Sunday, many Huntington Beach shoppers have had to choose

between crossing the picket line or finding another market to buy

their weekly groceries at.

Susan Rakarich, 36, who works at the coffee bar and pharmacy at

the Albertsons on Beach Boulevard and Utica Ave., has been picketing

since she was locked out of the store Sunday morning.

Rakarich was one of 10 picketers manning the entrance to

Albertsons Sunday, handing out pamphlets and imploring people to buy

their food at Food 4 Less, Gelson’s, Rite Aid or Stater Bros. A dozen

other employees picketed on the sidewalk.

“We all have families,” Rakarich said. “We’re not asking for

anything, we just want to keep what we have. All we want is to keep

it the same.”

Ralphs spokesman Terry O’Neil called the strike a bad idea,

harmful to the financial well being of the employees and an

inconvenience to the customers.

“We don’t see it serving any constructive purpose,” O’Neil said.

“What is constructive is the union returning to the bargaining table

and negotiating a full, fair and equitable contract that will meet

the best needs of our employees, while also allowing our companies to

remain competitive in the face of increased competition from low cost

retailers and skyrocketing health care costs.”

The company has plans to take away certain holiday pay and will

soon start forcing employees to pay into their health care plans,

said Patrick Adkins, picket captain at Albertsons.

“We’re asking that our employees start sharing in the cost of the

premium,” Albertsons spokeswoman Stacia Levenfeld said. Under a new

contract, employees would be required to pay $5 to $15 a week for

health coverage.

Workers say they are anxious to get back to work. It’s hard for

many of the workers to make ends meet with the meager amount they’re

getting for standing outside in eight to 10-hour shifts every day

during the stoppage.

As a single mother of three, being forced out of work is a

sacrifice for Rakarich, who will receive only a small stipend during

the lockout.

“We want to resolve this. We want to go to work,” she said. “But

we’re standing up for the rights of ourselves, our families and other

people in this position,” Rakarich said.

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at [email protected].