Clergy urge recognition of picket lines

A group of clergymen from across the Washington area voted unanimously yesterday to urge their congregations to honor picket lines if 18,000 grocery workers walk out on strike later this month.

Safeway Inc. and Giant Food LLC’s contract with grocery workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 is set to expire March 27.

“We would urge members of our churches to send letters to Safeway asking them to do everything in their power to avert any kind of job action,” the Rev. Graylan Hagler, pastor of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, said after the vote by about 50 Protestant, Jewish and Muslim clergymen.

UFCW Local 400 representatives met with the clergymen at Israel Baptist Church in Northeast.

If labor negotiations fail, “we will collectively join with the workers if they do go out on strike and urge our members not to cross the picket line,” Mr. Hagler said. “Part of our spirit of religious collectivism requires us to stand with our neighbors.”

The nation’s grocery chains have become the latest battleground for unions as they struggle to maintain power in the U.S. workplace. So far, the effort has been largely disappointing for unions.

Safeway and Giant want to cut back on wages, health care benefits and pensions to compete more effectively with nonunion groceries, such as Food Lion and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Nonunion grocers often pay $8 an hour less in wages and benefits.

The nation’s longest grocery strike ended in California last month with union workers returning to their jobs with few of their demands met after 20 weeks on strike.

Clergymen, community groups and other unions supported the workers in rallies and prayer vigils. During their campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri joined union members on picket lines.

Nevertheless, with its financial reserves depleted, the UFCW agreed to a two-tier system that pays less money to new employees at the California groceries. In addition, the workers must pay a bigger part of their health care.

In New England, Stop & Shop Stores Inc. reached a similar two-tier pay and benefits agreement last month with unions representing 45,000 workers. Stop & Shop is owned by Royal Ahold NV, which also owns Giant stores.

The UFCW wants to ensure that grocery workers in the Washington and Baltimore area hold on to more of their wages and benefits.

“Those are the members of our various churches, synagogues and mosques,” the Rev. Earl Trent, pastor of Florida Avenue Baptist Church in Northeast, said about the grocery workers. “We’re hoping to support them in what they’re requesting in terms of fair pay, fair work and the whole issue of health care.”

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