Grocery Strike Supporters Arrested

Seventeen people, including two retirees from nearby Leisure World, were arrested as acts of civil disobedience were staged Thursday at a Pavilions supermarket in Mission Viejo in support of striking grocery workers.

The demonstration, at Oso and Marguerite parkways, was one of four at Vons and Pavilions stores in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said the 17 were arrested on suspicion of failure to disperse after a blockade of three entrances to the store. All were cited and released.

“I feel very strongly that the workers have a right to organize and to bargain collectively,” said Laguna Woods resident Muriel Tuteur, 81, one of those arrested.

The retired social worker, who said this was her first arrest, said she joined the demonstration because “this is an attack against all working people.”

About 200 people demonstrated at the Mission Viejo event, said Lara Wheelock, who helped organize Thursday’s rally as a representative of the AFL-CIO, which last month stepped in to take control of national strategy for the strike.

“We’re trying to give a message to the company that it’s not just the strikers that they’re fighting against,” Wheelock said. “The whole community is going to stand up with these workers and put their bodies on the line.”

More than 50 people were arrested Thursday, including demonstrators in Santa Monica, San Pedro and Los Angeles.

The work stoppage, affecting about 59,000 workers from 852 stores in Central and Southern California, began with an Oct. 11 strike against Vons and Pavilions. Ralphs and Albertsons locked out their United Food and Commercial Workers union employees the next day.

The union and supermarkets remain at odds over health care coverage, wages and benefits. Negotiations, involving a federal mediator, continue.