031018 CA Butchers Union : A Mixed Bag For Strikes

San Diego Union-Tribune - Mick McMahon still has bitter memories of a strike by San Diego grocery butchers in 1985. After eight long weeks, the union gave in to industry demands for more flexibility in hiring low-wage meat wrappers.

"That was probably the hardest strike we ever had," said McMahon, a 74-year-old former meat cutter and union official. "We weren't used to accepting that type of proposal."

Drained of funds after the walkout, the butchers' union merged with the grocery retail clerks union and became part of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

Yesterday, the 70,000-strong UFCW was poised to enter potentially an equally bitter battle affecting supermarkets across Southern California. As the union considered a strike, the situation begged the question: Is history on the side of labor or industry?

Other than the 1985 butchers' strike, UFCW has been one of the most successful unions in the region, winning wage and benefit packages that make these jobs among the best blue-collar work around.

"The supermarkets, begrudgingly, gave the clerks and the meat cutters most of what they wanted for many years because everybody in the industry was paying the same rate," said Jim McVicker, communications specialist with UFCW Local 135.

Yet, overall, San Diego is not known as a stronghold for organized labor.

About 185,000 workers in the county today are union members, say labor officials, or roughly 15% of the total work force.

Some political observers say organized labor's clout locally has increased recently. A janitors' strike in 2000, for example, helped pave the way for better pay and benefits for union janitors.

But for every strike that has worked, there have been others that crumbled. At one time, nearly all the 4,000 workers at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., or NASSCO, were represented by unions. Today, only a fraction of shipyard workers are unionized.

Deep roots

The roots of anti-union sentiment among business leaders trace back to the turn of the century. Shipping and sugar magnate John Spreckles and other industrialists viewed organized labor as radical.

Attempts by the infamous Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW, to organize San Diego workers from 1910 through 1915 were crushed. Ben Reitman, a companion to IWW supporter and world famous anarchist Emma Goldman, was tarred and feathered near a Peñasquitos ranch in 1912.

"There were a series of vigilante actions that were nothing short of brutal," said Abe Shragge, a historian and an adjunct professor at the University of California San Diego.

Police arrested IWW organizers during the day, Shragge said. At night, vigilantes took them from jail to Sorrento Valley, where they were beaten.

"Then they were driven to the county line and kicked out, in some cases naked, and told, 'Don't come back,' " said Shragge. "They didn't."

That climate began to change in the mid-1930s, when Consolidated Aircraft moved to San Diego and sparked the emergence of the county's defense industry.

Even then, organized labor didn't have an easy time locally as the country readied for World War II.

"There were a number of strikes in San Diego during the war years, and the commandant of the 11th Naval District went public saying, 'You can't do that. It's unpatriotic to the war effort,' " Shragge said.

1990s strikes The defense industry remained a stronghold for organized labor into the early 1990s, with a series of major strikes over the years. One of the toughest years for organized labor in San Diego County was 1987.

A 25-day walkout by more than 4,000 machinists at the General Dynamics Convair and Space Systems divisions collapsed when the company began hiring permanent replacements for the strikers. More than 1,000 union workers crossed the picket lines during the strike.

At Solar Turbines, a five-week strike of nearly 1,000 machinists was in danger of eroding when the firm began taking applications for permanent replacements. Union members voted to return to work.

Finally, NASSCO slashed the wages of its 1,600 unionized workers by an average of 17%. The company implemented its contract conditions and declared the shipyard an open shop. The labor unrest culminated in a three-week strike that ended when union members' reluctantly accepted the pay cut.

Cutbacks in defense spending took their toll. General Dynamics closed its massive plant in Kearny Mesa in the mid-1990s, eliminating thousands of union jobs. Other defense companies followed suit. For a time, that left organized labor in San Diego without what had been its cornerstone of union workers.

Labor charted a comeback by organizing workers in tourism, services and other industries. In addition, some long-fought battles in traditional industries were resolved with contract agreements.

After nearly a decade of high-profile strife, the press operators' union at The San Diego Union- Tribune reached agreement on a contract in 2002. But the newspaper's newsroom and clerical employees decertified their guild in the late '90s.

1978 action In the grocery industry, the last big strike in Southern California occurred in 1978, when 47,000 clerks walked out for five days before winning concessions from supermarkets.

Colorful characters fought these battles. Max Osslo, a tough San Diego labor leader, ran the butchers' union for 46 years. Tall and heavyset, Osslo was convicted in the 1950s of hiring thugs to beat up a rival union chief. He was later pardoned by the governor.

That was before consolidation in the grocery industry left only three major companies – Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons. Earlier, several other chains such as Lucky's, Alpha Beta and Thrifty had fought fiercely for market share.

So if the union told supporters to shop at Alpha Beta but not Vons, the industry struggled to maintain unity against a strike.

"Maybe shoppers were more likely to shop someplace else because it wasn't that hard to do," said McVicker. "Nowadays we don't have that many other choices."

McMahon, who worked as a butcher for 23 years, said the union's old guard is still upset over the outcome of the 1985 strike. Although retired, he's volunteering at the UFCW's headquarters, and he's optimistic about the union's chances.

"This is the strongest I've seen the union in years," he said.

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