15 Arrested During Rally for Supermarket Strikers

Police arrested 15 demonstrators Saturday for blocking the entrance to a Vons supermarket in Garden Grove during a labor rally that drew more than 1,200 striking grocery workers and supporters.

“We held this rally to heighten the awareness of the general public that this strike is still continuing,” said Rick Eiden, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

They were arrested on charges of failing to disperse, a misdemeanor, given citations and later released at the Garden Grove Police Department.

The rally, held on the strike’s 99th day, coincided with the holiday weekend honoring slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Eiden said.

Striking workers heard from labor and elected leaders, including Reps. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) and Hilda L. Solis (D-El Monte), Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) and others.

Sanchez won some of the loudest cheers when she reminisced about the struggles of labor leader Cesar Chavez, then began the chant made famous during the farm labor protests, “Si, se puede. Si, se puede! (Yes, we can!)”

“We have lost tears over this. We have lost blood over this,” Sanchez said.

“There is no way we are going to lose this,” she said. “Not here.... We are going to win.”

Among those arrested by Garden Grove police were Greg Conger, president of Orange County’s Local 324, Art Pulaski, head of the State Labor Federation, Mike Garcia, local president of the Service Employees International Union, Amin David, founder of Orange County’s Los Amigos, and Anaheim City Councilman Richard Chavez.

The long-running labor dispute centers on the supermarket chains’ demand that workers shoulder more of the cost of their health insurance, and that the union agree to the creation of a lower wage and benefit scale for new employees. Any contract signed in Central and Southern California is likely to affect supermarket contract negotiations across the country.

For Chavez, the rally marked his first arrest but a worthy sacrifice, he said.

“The families involved continue to suffer because there are no paychecks coming in. That’s why I’m doing this,” Chavez said. “I personally know of a single mother with two children who nearly was evicted from her home because she couldn’t pay the rent until supporters helped her.

“There are other personal tragedies like this and they live in our city.”

More than 50 police officers, some on horseback, provided security during the rally.

Police said organizers had briefed them on the event, including the likelihood that 15 people would engage in “civil disobedience” by refusing to leave the store’s front entrance.