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Union funds dwindling as grocery strike drags on: new strikes elsewhere could begin as soon as May.

Article Excerpt
The cost of the supermarket strike in Southern California is rapidly depleting the strike fund of the grocery workers' international union in Washington, D.C., which could run out as early as May--just as a series of contracts begin to expire in Northern California and six other major cities.

In an attempt to avert a crisis, United Food and Commercial Workers officials in recent weeks have asked for financial assistance from the national AFL-CIO and other affiliated unions. The AFL-CIO has also taken the lead on setting up a national strategy.

In the aftermath, UFCW leaders have been criticized for failing to quickly grasp the resolve on the part of employers in the four-month-long strike, showing little strategic vision and poor planning.

"Clearly they could have done things differently," said Mike Garcia, president of Local 1877 of the Service Employee International Union, who led the Justice for Janitors campaign that won big gains for commercial building workers downtown in 2000. "They clearly underestimated how deep the will of the markets is to win concessions, so now there's a willingness to move on to more aggressive strategies. You can't blame them for wanting to resolve things."

The main driver of union strategy over the past few...

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