AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has thrown his support behind striking grocery workers in Southern and Central California by announcing that he would ask unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO as well as state and county labor councils around the country to contribute to a new national strike fund. Approximately 70,000 grocery workers, represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFWC), have been on strike for 20 days. The AFL-CIO also tried to challenge Wall Street's support for the supermarkets by holding a conference call with more than 150 institutional shareholders and analysts. It seems that neither side is willing to back down at the moment, as health care benefits remain an unresolved issue.
See "National Labor Backs Grocery Workers", Nancy Cleeland and Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times, October 30, 2003