Greed Strike
For those of you who don't live in California,
we've all been dealing with a strike by grocery
workers that's over two months old. It hasn't been
pretty, but yesterday—here in San Diego, at
least—the ugliness sunk to new lows. What
little sympathy I had for these strikers (not much)
has totally evaporated.
In what union leaders called a "rally" and
rational human beings more accurately characterized
as a "riot," several hundred striking workers
demonstrated yesterday outside a Vons store in La
Mesa. Lined up in droves outside the entrances to
the store, they jeered and taunted shoppers as they
entered and exited the store. Customers had to run
the gauntlet as they pushed their grocery carts out
to their cars, while rabid strikers waved picket
signs and shouted at them. Understandably, a number
of shoppers, including a wheelchair-bound elderly
woman, felt so fearful of the spectacle that they
cowered inside the store until police arrived to
subdue the ruckus. One 52-year-old woman striker
was even arrested
for hitting a 13-year-old girl with a picket
sign.
Traditionally, striking workers play the role of
the oppressed, attempting to engender public
sympathy in their resistance to supposedly
overbearing, greedy employers. Throughout this
strike, these strikers have instead acted in turns
obnoxious, offensive and confrontational. What
purpose yesterday's "rally" served, I can't fathom.
What sympathy could they possibly have thought to
generate with such aggressive, ugly behavior?
Surely, no one who saw the news footage of hapless
consumers facing the horde will ever again honk
their horn in support as they drive by the
supermarket.
The striking grocery workers wave signs that
scream "STOP CORPORATE GREED," but in my opinion,
the whole genesis of this strike came from greed on
the part of overpaid blue-collar workers who have
not the slightest comprehension of how good they've
got it. Now, they're eating crow for their holiday
dinners. I hope the supermarket chains keep digging
in their heels until these maniacs learn some
civility and humility.
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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