(The Desert Sun posted the following story by Trey Clark on its website on October 15.)
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Lupe Carrillo held a picket sign Wednesday while pacing by the entrance to Albertsons.
Air-conditioning and her old job lay just 10 feet away, but she and a host of other Albertsons employees could do nothing but march in the afternoon heat after being locked out of the store on Sunday.
“We’d much rather be inside doing our jobs,” she said. “But I believe strongly in our cause and need to do what’s best for me and my son in the long run.”
Carrillo, a 20-year-old single mother, and fellow Albertsons and Ralphs employees were locked out after a strike by Vons employees when their union rejected the latest contract offer from the grocery chains.
The United Food and Commercial Workers began striking Saturday against Vons and Pavilions stores in Southern California. That prompted Albertsons and Ralphs, which are covered under the same contract, to lock out union workers in their stores.
The union pays employees about half their regular paycheck, and provides medical insurance for those who spend a minimum of 40 hours per week in front of the store, but Carillo said the strike has already affected her home life.
She has had to call on her mother and other family members to help take care of her 7-month-old son during her unusual picketing schedule.
Carillo walked the picket line from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., then caught a few hours sleep before returning at 7 a.m.
“I haven’t even been able to see him since this started,” she said. “And there are people out here who have three, four or five kids.”
A few passersby yelled at the picketers over the past few days since the lock-out began, according to Carrillo, telling them to get a job or calling them lazy.
Carrillo said that she and the rest of the picketers did not want to offend customers whom she would have to interact with after the lock-out.
“We just tell them ‘Thank you for your support,’ and hope they go to a different store next time around,” she said. “We understand that there are some people who have no choice but to come here because of transportation or drug prescriptions.”
Most of the employees picketed in two four-hour shifts during the day, Carrillo said.
Several picket captains lead meetings with the union workers each time they come on for a shift. During the meetings, the captain updates the latest news and discusses the laws and rules for picketing.
“We aren’t yelling at people or trying to intimidate anyone,” said picket captain Jerry Bonello, who has worked at Albertsons for 25 years. “We’re just out here doing what we have to do to get a fair shake.”
The Rancho Mirage Albertsons group is trained to avoid arguments with customers or mangers and trained in proper techniques for stopping incoming deliveries.
The truck drivers, represented by the Teamsters Union, are respecting the picket line and parking the trucks outside of the store parking lot.
Store managers have been forced to find non-union licensed drivers or drive the trucks in themselves.
Janos Olarnik, a 12-year Albertsons employee, said that most of the store?s regular customers were not crossing the picket line.
“I think the people we’ve come to know over the years respect us and our cause,” said the single father of three. Carrillo said she understands that the increasing competition from low-price stores like Wal-Mart is forcing the store to make changes, but doesn’t think all the responsibility should be transferred to the employees.
“I think this problem would have turned up at some point down the road even without the competition from Wal-Mart,” she said. “If the company thinks they can make an extra $1 billion by cutting back our benefits, they will find a reason to do it.”