Related: Shaw's Supermarket Strike
The Boston Globe Goes Antiwar
Only for a day.
"Shaw’s strikers borrow from history; March inspired by farm actions in ’60s" by Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff | May 21, 2010
When striking Shaw’s warehouse workers embark on a five-day march this weekend to draw renewed attention to their nearly three-month fight against the supermarket company, they will also be evoking the civil rights and farm workers’ marches of the 1960s.
“It’s interesting that the leaders are turning to the history of social movements to find tactics that will attract public attention,’’ said James Green, a labor historian at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “Historically, of course, this was very common and often very effective.’’
Marches like this don’t take place very often anymore, but drastic action is necessary to get the public’s attention, organizers said.
Isn't that the MSM's JOB?
The 300 warehouse workers walked off the job on March 7, largely over rising health care costs, and the union has been holding pickets at about 16 local Shaw’s stores ever since.
“You can’t win a strike these days, generally speaking, just walking around on a picket line,’’ said Russ Davis, executive director of Jobs With Justice, which helped plan the march.
The march will go a long way to dramatize the work stoppage, he said: “Frankly, 12 weeks into a strike, what’s the news? They’re still on strike.’’
Shortly after the strike began, Shaw’s Supermarkets Inc., owned by Supervalu, cut off the workers’ health benefits and hired replacement workers to operate the forklifts and process orders in the 34-degree warehouse. Shaw’s declined to comment on the march, but said that more than 50 of the warehouse workers are back....
Support for the warehouse workers has been growing. On Monday, Senator John F. Kerry, Representative Michael Capuano, and nine other Massachusetts congressional leaders sent a letter to the chief executives of Shaw’s and Supervalu....
Really carrying a lot of clout, aren't they?
Strike is over now, right?
Shaw’s is in a sensitive position, said Green of UMass-Boston, citing the strikers’ ability to convince consumers to shop elsewhere. He said it will be tough to top the power of the 1903 Mother Jones-led march of 100 child workers from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt’s Long Island home to abolish child labor, but the Shaw’s march from Methuen could push the company into action.
I DOUBT IT!
The LABOR "movement" has to go back OVER 100 YEARS to point to success?
Of course, that would mean pushing the public into action, too.
Oh, GOOOOOOOD LUCK with THAT ONE on AmeriKa!
Robert Gendraw of Dorchester shops at the Shaw’s on Morrissey Boulevard, and said he hasn’t changed his habits because of the picket line outside.
“It just has nothing to do with me,’’ he said.
That clear it up for you, strikers?
And it's a five-day excursion, right?
"Shaw’s workers start 1st leg of 60-mile march; Journey will end with State House rally" by Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff | May 24, 2010
METHUEN — The twelfth week of a strike....
The striking workers — some 240, down from the original 306 after some workers crossed the picket line and some retired — have been picketing 20 company stores since March 7 when they rejected a contract offer from the company that workers said would have resulted in the loss of $28 per week, or about $1,456 annually for people on the family health insurance plans....
So it has been over three months now?
Shaw’s parent company is Minnesota-based
Oh, Shaw's is SCREWING WORKERS AGAIN, huh?
For striking workers, three months without paychecks has meant privations and for some, financial risk....
But WHO CARES about them?
I'm sure the fact that Shaw's is a sponsor of the Red Sox has nothing to do with the lack of a follow-up; or did the agenda-pushing Globe just not make the journey?
