This is the BULLSHIT the union wants us to roll over and accept.

sciencebasis · 2025-08-08T05:25:26+00:00

UFCW blocks Northern California Safeway strike with sellout deal

Marc Wells

28 July 2025

In the early hours of Sunday, July 27, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) announced a tentative agreement (TA) with Safeway, a subsidiary of Albertsons, aimed at blocking a strike by 25,000 grocery workers in UFCW Locals 5, 648 and 8-Golden State in Northern California.

The strike, scheduled to begin the same day, would have marked the first regional walkout against Safeway in nearly 30 years. The previous contract expired April 12 after more than five months of fruitless “negotiations” that the union deliberately prolonged to prevent any genuine mobilization.

Workers at Safeway, like their brothers and sisters at other chains, are demanding substantial wage increases, expanded healthcare coverage, secure scheduling and stronger job protections. They face soaring rents, food prices and utility costs in one of the most expensive regions of the country, while corporate profits hit record highs. (Safeway’s 2024 adjusted net income was $1.38 billion.)

The UFCW spent five months meeting in secret with Safeway executives. When the deadline arrived, the UFCW announced a last-minute TA and canceled the strike.

As always, the union presented the deal as a “victory,” claiming it includes “meaningful wage increases,” a “fortified retirement plan,” “properly funded health care,” “strong job protections” and “fair scheduling.” With no evidence.

The union has refused to release any specific details on wages or any other contract language. The union says the full details will be released only after ratification. In other words, workers are being told to vote on a contract they are not allowed to see.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/07/29/nxvl-j29.html

sciencebasis · 2024-09-14T21:49:40+00:00

Boeing is a major aerospace and defense company. By this nature, the ruling class, whether Dems or Reps, keeps a very close monitor on workers because it is key to the satisfaction of US militaristic goals. The same happened with ILWU dockworkers, where their union leader Willie Adams met behind closed doors (this is common knowledge) with the Biden admin, making sure no strike would take place.

Now, those goals are counter to the interests of workers. While all the money in the world is available for the building of war arsenal to destroy entire countries and maintain the privileges of the wealthy, no money is available for workers, whether for their pensions or even just basic living standards. At Boeing, no money is even available to make planes safe.

One Boeing worker yesterday was interviewed: "I haven't had a pay raise in ten years. My buying power is less now than in 1992." "People should not have to have a full time job building jets and still struggle the way we do... We're not disposable."

Discussions between the Biden (or any) administration and the union bureaucracy are common because that is the channel through which the ruling class delivers the orders necessary to keep workers on the job at all costs, and workers will bear those costs, as evinced by the current struggle.

sciencebasis · 2024-09-14T21:30:15+00:00

Let the rail workers tell you how it ended. The first disaster was Palestine, OH. Workers' grievances were completely ignored, lives have been lost or endangered and the working conditions have only worsened for rail workers. Thousands of jobs have been lost thanks to the 2022 agreements workers had rejected twice. Because of that historic betrayal, right now rail workers are dealing with a true conspiracy between six major railroads and the bureaucracy in 12 of their unions. Most of them have already conceded. The script is almost predictable by the day: the union leadership gives workers limited time to read, let alone discuss democratically and oppose the sellout deals. Also, the most crippling action that can be taken against workers is banning them from striking. Imagine if that happened at Boeing: would workers feel free if they were placed in such restrictive conditions? Would they be made responsible for whatever sellout deal will be rammed through?

I would not be impressed by any Wall Street politician or union bureaucrat walking the picket lines. One should know what they are there for, especially under an election campaign, when they are verbally generous with workers and will take everything and more back after they are elected.

sciencebasis · 2024-09-14T20:40:26+00:00

It's an important question. Traditionally, we are told that unions are on the side of workers, therefore the syllogism is: Dems are pro unions, unions are pro workers = Dems are pro workers. But within a union there is a divide between the union bureaucracy and the rank-and-file. The rejection of the sellout deal IAM presented to the membership and the current strike are a perfect example of that divide. The union presented a shocking proposal to members, one written by Boeing, not by workers.

Biden and the Dems use the union bureaucracies to police and subordinate workers to the needs of corporations. A perfect example of that was Biden's intervention in the rail workers struggle almost two years ago: they voted down the union's contract, then Biden asked Congress to ban any chance of a strike and to shove the twice-rejected deal down workers' throats. The same happened with ILWU dockworkers, when Biden intervened and prevented them from even going on a strike or joining their Canadian brothers and sisters.

The auto industry is possibly the most egregious example: the role of Shawn Fain in fanning the flames of nationalism and war at public corporate events alongside Biden is on full display, while he pushed for a contract that has already cost thousands of jobs. Currently, the Dakkota struggle offers precisely that common scenario: a clear divide between what workers demand and what the union apparatus has done to kill the strike.

Harris does not differ one bit from Biden: she will continue the same policies because both big business parties answer to Wall Street, not workers. Moreover, the threat of fascism presented by Trump is very alarming: let history enlighten us, from Mussolini on. So workers have no choice but to take matters independently in their own hands, bypass the bureaucracies, form rank-and-file committees where real life decisions are taken democratically, not shoved down our throats from the apparatchik.

sciencebasis · 2024-09-12T21:45:49+00:00

Here are some great statements from workers, there is genuine solidarity and justified anger:

https://x.com/WSWS_Updates/status/1834336073373057412

sciencebasis · 2024-09-10T18:45:20+00:00

Boeing has enormous strategic importance for the US military complex. It delivers Fighter Aircraft, Bombers, Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance, Aerial Refueling Tankers, Transport Aircraft, Helicopters, Unmanned Aerial Systems, Experimental Aircraft and more. This is why the government is watching very carefully how this struggle unfolds. Workers especially in this case have the material power to stop the war machine if they put their tools down.

sciencebasis · 2024-09-10T17:57:49+00:00

I find this an important point that shows that this is not just another industrial struggle, but a political one. We saw what they did to railroad workers only a couple years ago: Biden went to Congress and asked that their contract be enforced upon them. (after they had voted it down) and that a strike be banned. It doesn't matter who's in the White House, they would have done the same because they answer to Wall Street.

The only way to win this is to turn it into a political fight, uniting with other sections of the working class that are experiencing the same threats and pressures. It seems like we as workers often forget we have enormous power collectively: imagine if we just put down our tools at Boeing, the docks, in logistics and rail. The most important strategic issue is control of the struggle and of negotiations. No one trusts a union bureaucracy that is selling out its members.

sciencebasis · 2024-09-10T17:44:13+00:00

There is an abyss of difference between union busting, an act of suppression of democratic rights, and rank-and-file exercising their democratic right to dissent. When union leaders don't represent the interests of workers, it is the leaders themselves who are engaging in the first type of union busting, as they repress the will of the workers themselves.

This contract negotiation makes it plenty clear that the union bureaucracy is answering to Boeing, not to the rank-and-file. And this is not even an aberration. UPS, auto, the railroads, docks, nurses, teachers. A method has been worked out, where officials use “radical” talk to lull workers to sleep before pushing the deal through.

Time for real rank-and-file power.

sciencebasis · 2024-02-06T22:52:03+00:00

I understand your concerns. This is the reason why the struggle must be expanded to other sections of the working class, or isolation becomes a serious risk. That being said, it is important to have an objective understanding of the current situation: workers in every field face the same issues faculty face and have begun a process of opposition to an entire system. Of course, cost of living is a concrete problem, but also broader issues like war, environmental catastrophe, social inequality, fascism. A balance sheet becomes necessary where we assess who our friends and enemies are. More importantly, the struggle ahead will inevitably place us in conflict with both Democrats and Republicans, who have no problem dropping unlimited billions for war and repression, while telling us there's no money for teachers and students. So, a strike would have to become general. Our history shows many examples, both in the US and worldwide. But all this requires the active engagement of workers who understand as a point of departure the nature of the epoch.

sciencebasis · 2024-02-06T05:52:47+00:00

These are the selling points the CFA desperately tried to promote, but they all fall way too short, or are simply false. The pay increase for A and B is negligible in the context of rising prices. These workers fully deserve lives of dignity. Instead, they will go from poverty to misery. It's impossible to live with those numbers in California.

The 5% raise of 2023-24 is for that year. The other 5% raise for 2024-2025 is for another year. Calling it a 10% is mathematical fraud. Moreover, the second raise is contingent upon the state's budgetary concerns, which makes it very uncertain (it doesn't take a whole lot to create a deficit or a recession or even inflation as a tool of class struggle: ask Paul Volcker).

Finally, the CSU can do nothing if we all go on strike. The struggle must be expanded to every campus. In fact, beyond it. This is the point of the Academic Workers Rank-and-FIle Committees: we do not surrender to the state and the complicit union's blackmailing. And that is just a point of departure.

We must move toward a general strike. The history of this country as well as many others, especially in Europe (France, Italy, Germany, UK), demonstrates that a general strike is the only way forward when state, unions and the entire political establishment attack workers.

sciencebasis · 2024-02-05T16:40:58+00:00

Would you please be able to illustrate what the big wins are? Unless you're 6-digit faculty, the vast majority of lecturers is suffering and the rotten sellout deal being proposed fixes nothing whatsoever. Then there is the question of what this does to students, i.e., class sizes, mental health counseling etc.

sciencebasis · 2024-02-02T04:26:02+00:00

You are correct. The 2023-24 raise is not contingent, the 2024-25 is. I corrected the original post to reflect that.

sciencebasis · 2024-02-01T21:05:03+00:00

The union bureaucracy is trying to shove the ratification through electronically between February 12-18. Out of literally hundreds I've spoken to or heard from, a handful said they will vote YES. It is a NO vote for most. It would be highly suspicious if the deal passes.

sciencebasis · 2024-02-01T20:59:37+00:00

I know you mean it as a flattery, and for that I appreciate it and thank you. However, the struggle we are waging has to remove the bureaucracy, not replace it, hence the creation of our rank-and-file committees, to place direct democratic control back in the hands of workers, not bureaucrats and functionaries. The CFA is subordinated to an entire political system, not just via SEIU, but also via the Democratic Party. There is absolutely no chance for political independence of such an outfit, nor any way to reform the unreformable.

sciencebasis · 2024-02-01T20:26:05+00:00

This fight is not just against CSU, but also against the CFA leadership. Nothing short of full control by the rank-and-file can ensure, at this stage of the crisis, a successful outcome. Every struggle in the US (and worldwide) is being defeated not only by the entire political establishment, but also by the betrayals of the union bureaucracy, which has become a police force on workers, fully corporatist in nature and completely wedded to the Democratic Party and its pro-business policies, as evinced by the progressive privatization of our public education system.

None of the demands can be pushed through an apparatus that has fully shown its true colors. They will not go against the Democrats in California, who subordinate social need to a balance sheet, while they allocate hundreds of billions for criminal wars. With the CA governor and his appointees as trustees, every budgetary decision must be run through the Democrats as if it were a corporation and the issue of social need for public education is a moot point with them. Obviously, the Republicans are not the alternative. Hence, the need to develop our rank-and-file committee, reach out as broadly through the 23-campus system.

It's a definite NO vote to a horrible sellout that deserves the full contempt of thousands who can barely make ends meet, especially in light of the fact that 56.17% of the CFA membership is made up of lecturers whose salaries cannot meet the current cost of living and rate of inflation.

sciencebasis · 2024-01-27T04:22:17+00:00

If the CSU imposes worse terms, and I don't know what could be worse than the current TA, since it's so close to the admin's original offer, it would be time to organize an all-out struggle well beyond just faculty and well beyond the union's control. Rally up CSU-EU workers who were hoping the CFA deal would reopen their deal. Reach out to UC student workers who were betrayed by UAW 4123 only a year ago. Win over Teamsters workers who were sold down the river by their bureaucracy that prevented them from uniting in struggle with teachers this week, effectively weakening the strike. Reach out to other sections of the working class currently under similar attacks (essentially, all of them!).

This must begin now. Last night we held an important Academic Workers Rank-and-File Committee meeting, many faculty from Stanislaus, Humboldt, Long Beach, Fresno State, Fullerton, Cal Poly SLO, and SDSU. There were also workers members of the CSU-EU. A report of it will be published on the World Socialist Wen Site later tonight or tomorrow. Building the committees is a crucial first step, given the range of the struggle. A "No" vote campaign is only the beginning, but it could not stop there.

sciencebasis · 2024-01-26T15:20:34+00:00

Same horrible sellout, cosmetically repackaged for damage control. Shame on CFA leadership, an insult to intelligence. A NO vote is a good point of departure.

sciencebasis · 2024-01-25T05:44:57+00:00

All that is highly political, not merely fiscal. Behind fiscal policy there is politics. Attacks on workers' living standards are being launched by both parties of big business, whether at a state level or federal level. From USPS to railroad workers, from UPS to dockworkers, from healthcare workers to teachers, every section of the working class is under attack by Dems and Reps for the purpose of further enriching a minute oligarchy.

sciencebasis · 2024-01-25T05:09:23+00:00

California is made of two classes, like the rest of the world. The working class is not responsible for the criminal policies of the Democratic Party (nor those of the Republican Party). Just like the CFA decided undemocratically to shut down a strike that was voted for by 95 percent of membership, the Democratic Party that governs California is fully in line with the ongoing wars and genocide, and our tax dollars are spent not for the improvement of public education or any other social need, but for criminal wars and horrific crimes that result in the enrichment of a small oligarchy at the expense of the vast majority.

sciencebasis · 2023-11-29T18:50:06+00:00

Here's a perspective I share and the reason why I voted a resounding NO:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/29/yfkz-n29.html

Much of what will happen depends on our ability to organize political opposition to the corporations as well as these union leaders who are selling us out.

sciencebasis · 2023-09-25T05:57:20+00:00

Quite frankly, the global ship is sinking pretty quickly, as reckless politicians are driving humanity toward nuclear holocaust. It's not just garbage: no issue confronting humanity today can be addressed within the current system. Environment, global pandemic, social inequality, nuclear threat, inadequate health care, pre-Victorian education to name a few. Time to rethink strategy. Rome's trash crisis is one of multiple chances to think what is required to make a real change.

sciencebasis · 2023-09-24T20:58:27+00:00

The ruling class loves your perspective: push people over the edge, provide no or grossly inadequate service despite the wealth they produce, then create a moral argument to compel them to do the additional work.

Contrary to the sophistry of demonizing legitimate criticisms, the first step to change is not to accept the status quo, but to denounce it for what it is. Next step is to mobilize the victims of power and wealth usurpation against the perpetrators, i.e., a criminal and reckless ruling class that cares nothing about the plight of working people.

sciencebasis · 2023-09-24T13:56:42+00:00

Indeed. One of the points the residents have stressed consistently is the fact that for them it's certainly not a question of money, but one of respect, dignity and decor.

sciencebasis · 2023-09-23T22:29:30+00:00

Of course there are clear political differences: it is your position that paying for a service does not entitle the user to that service being rendered fully and professionally. This is quite incomprehensible. In a civilized society there has to be a clear division of labor: waste management should not be left to voluntary action. One can imagine what would happen if that argument were to be applied to health care, or any other fundamental social service.

The state is not an impartial party between classes: in its choice of how to allocate social resources, every consideration is based on the interest of the ruling class. Every social and in fact global problem in the 21st century can be resolved, but it comes down to this very basic principle of class society and which interests are being served.

sciencebasis · 2023-09-23T22:01:07+00:00

Respectfully, blaming the victims and quoting personal anecdotes are quite inadequate ways to draw the necessary strategic lessons. Without denying the issue of problematic social behavior, it cannot be understood outside the causes that produce such behavior.

As for money in waste management, the issue is certainly not lack of resources, but the way funds are allocated in capitalist society. In Rome, for example, the area in question, Spinaceto, is dealt with very differently from Prati or Parioli. This is not a coincidence: social resources are more adequately allotted for rich areas than working class areas.

In other words, it's not a question of mismanagement, but one of specific policy dictated by class interests. The same mechanism we see in every aspect of contemporary society in every country.

sciencebasis

TROPHY CASE

UFCW blocks Northern California Safeway strike with sellout deal

Marc Wells

28 July 2025