Clerks Cheer Strike Vote, Fear Tough Times Ahead

Maureen M. Smith of San Clemente applauded wildly with other retail clerks Thursday when a strike authorization vote was announced at their Buena Park union hall.

But when the noise died down, so did Smith’s spirits, as she faced the financial uncertainty that a strike could bring her family.

“Let’s face it, it frightens me. I’ve got three children, and I’m the only means of support for them,” Smith said.

About 60,000 grocery employees throughout Southern California, members of United Food & Commercial Workers AFL-CIO, voted Wednesday by more than 80% to authorize a strike if talks fail, officials announced Thursday.

John Sperry, president of 23,000-member Local 324 in Buena Park, said he hoped that the union “now can convince the employers that we are serious in our labor discussions and (together we) can come out with a contract.”

In Orange County, about 11,000 employees, including cashiers and grocery boxers, are affected by the authorization vote, Sperry said. About 44 Ralphs markets, mostly in Orange County, could be picketed as soon as this weekend, he said.

Union executive boards were considering paying up to $15 a day for a week depending on how much time an individual striker spent on the picket lines, but no final decision on the strike stipend has been made, union officials said.

Smith, a cashier at a Ralphs in south Orange County whose 17-year-old daughter is a grocery bagger in the same union, said: “I like my union, but I couldn’t sleep the night before the vote. In a strike, nobody wins. Both sides lose.”

Tears welled when she recalled previous strikes.

“I know of one clerk who bought a new truck with her husband,” she said. “But they lost it because they couldn’t make the payments.”

At a Ralphs Giant supermarket in Buena Park, where signs on the front doors advertised for workers, cashier Yvonne Whitmore said the vote worried her, but she added, “The union has been very good to me.”

“Sure, it’s scary,” Whitmore said. “Many of the employees here are single parents. They survive by making it on what they can. I’m married and have two kids. It wouldn’t hurt me that much financially. But a lot of my friends would feel the pressure.”

While grocery clerks contemplated the potential strike, customer Susan Johnson of Long Beach said she has spent the week stockpiling some groceries, especially meat, “just in case.”