Threats, Minor Incidents Flare on Picket Lines

John McGrew, grimacing from a sleepless night and claiming back pains, had just returned from a quick trip to the hospital to rejoin other Teamsters Union members on the picket line Wednesday morning at the main gate of Lucky’s grocery and produce warehouse in Irvine.

McGrew, 29, a warehouse worker from Buena Park, said he had almost been run over a few hours earlier by a car that picketers said sped by them at a side gate of the complex at 9300 Toledo Way. His return had inspired the 80 or so strikers from Teamsters Local 952, who were already agitated by confrontations with the police.

“He’s hurt and we’re gonna’ get some blood ,” shouted one striker as the shoe-less McGrew sat on a curb.

At that moment, about 9:30 a.m., the strikers began loud chants and threatened to stop all trucks coming into the warehouse complex. A force of 48 police officers, which had already arrested four strikers, then moved forward.

While the strikers shouted obscenities at the truck drivers and some cursed the police officers, the trailer rigs were allowed in. Some of the drivers, however, simply turned their rigs around and left.

For those who chose to cross the picket line, the intimidation was fierce. While strikers spat at the rigs, about 20 helmeted police officers armed with night sticks formed a human barrier in front of the trucks and slowly escorted them to the main gate.

Police then physically pushed the strikers away from the entrance. A few police shoves were reciprocated by the strikers, but an all-out scuffle never materialized.

One striker, Danny Wayne McNeill, 27, of Westminster, was arrested for assaulting a police officer. But that incident, which occurred at 8 a.m., was only a small scuffle, according to Irvine Police Lt. A.W. Muir.

Two other strikers were arrested for obstructing a sidewalk and another was taken into custody for public drunkenness.

It was the drinking, police said, that worried them the most. The 10 police officers who were assigned to the location after the strike began at midnight Tuesday reported “malicious mischief and heavy drinking by many of the strikers,” Muir said.

Most of the strikers outside the warehouse through 1 p.m. Wednesday were workers who had just completed their swing shifts Tuesday night when the strike began.

Besides McGrew, two other strikers were slightly injured by moving vehicles outside the side exit at about 5 a.m. Tito Rivera and Jerry Flanagan, Teamsters Union organizers, said the incidents were unprovoked and accused police of standing by and watching the strikers being struck by the cars.

However, Muir said a brief preliminary investigation revealed that at least one of the injured strikers--all treated and released at Saddleback Community Hospital in Laguna Hills--had actually thrown himself at the moving car.

“That does not mean there was a reluctance on our part to help. But perhaps there was a misunderstanding on what the police officers’ duties were,” Muir said. “But we are not reluctant to assist the strikers in doing what they are legally allowed to do.”

Muir also assured strikers that police will search for the drivers of the two vehicles that injured the union members. The strikers said the two drivers were “scabs” hired by Lucky to work in the warehouses.

“The matter remains under investigation,” said Muir, who set up a command post near the picket site.

Several windows of independent trucks were broken as they were being driven into the warehouse. One unidentified striker bragged that “we broke eight windows.”

The same striker, however, lamented that “we aren’t hurting (Lucky) at all. We’re not doing much good.”

But Jerry Scott, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters local, said the first day of the strike, despite the violence and tension, had been successful. He said only about 15% to 20% of Lucky’s trucks were rolling out of the warehouse Wednesday. He pointed to about 50 trucks parked inside the gates as evidence that the strike was affecting the large grocery chain.

“You don’t see that in a normal day,” he declared.

None of the drivers who crossed the picket line Wednesday were Teamsters Union members. All were independent drivers and the tag numbers on their trucks were written down by some of the strikers, who threatened them with retaliation when the strike ends.

“You think this is bad, wait until the strike is over,” one striker who refused to identify himself told a truck driver.

But another driver, Jim Chacon, was greeted with cheers when he pulled up to the gate. Chacon, a member of the union, said he had finished delivering a shipment in Santa Maria when the strike began.

“I just came back to leave the truck,” he said.

About 10 other union drivers followed suit after Chacon stepped from his truck and joined the picket line.

Despite the tension, union organizers decided shortly after 1 p.m. to send most of the strikers home. Scott told the 80 strikers to go home “and rest and wait for strike instructions.” A half-dozen strikers were left at the two entrances to the warehouse complex.

Scott said that some of the strikers would be dispersed to other grocery stores, particularly Vons, to form picket lines at those locations. “When we settle this strike, everybody goes back to work or nobody goes to work,” he told the union members.

The union organizer also cautioned the strikers to remain calm and obey the law.

“This is the time to keep our heads. What happens here reflects on our union,” Scott told the strikers. “It is important to do it in the legal way.”