Three years ago, California grocery workers went out on strike to protect their pension benefits and health insurance. They got their asses handed to them after a 141-day strike that included management collusion among the big grocery chains. Essentially, they conspired to protect their declining profits together throughout the strike, which is perfectly illegal. What was completely illegal was that they hired striking workers back using fake Social Security numbers.
So workers have been living under a terrible contract for three years. Their contract is up this year, and they've started courting local government officials for support. This is not unusual. What is unusual is that they've been pressuring officials who issue liquor licenses to hold out on giving them to the chains until they agree to treat employees with respect and pay them good wages and benefits.
So essentially, if the chains continue to hardball the unions, they'll simply hardball back--where it hurts--with their liquor, beer, and wine profits.
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