By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-11-18 17:56:30 | Word Count: 682
It was a high-stakes game of chicken that went down to the wire.
Both sides had prepared for a strike that could have cost billions of dollars in lost sales and wages.
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But as the 6 p.m. strike deadline approached Friday, the parties moved toward one another instead of away. And employees at Arizona Fry's and Safeway supermarkets picked up pizza slices in celebration instead of picket signs.
It was a happier result than five years ago in Southern California, when a bruising strike went on for 20 weeks before the United Food and Commercial Workers Union gave in to many of the companies' demands.
The strike there cost the parent companies of Fry's and Safeway an estimated $2 billion in lost sales and workers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost wages.
The California strike initially had strong support from the union members and from consumers who stood behind the workers and refused to shop at the stores being struck.
A strike in Arizona may not have garnered the same amount of community support.
Lisa McCoy of Phoenix, who was shopping early Friday, said she was relieved a walkout was averted but probably would have continued to patronize Fry's even during a strike.
"I'm a single mom and I am just getting by," she said. "It's silly to strike when there are so many people out there who would gladly take your job."
McCoy's viewpoint was shared by many. Many Arizonans questioned the union's wisdom in calling a strike with the economy still struggling and unemployment in Arizona above 9 percent.
Arizona is a right-to-work state and has relatively low union membership.
The AFL-CIO reports that Arizona has 227,000 union members, or roughly 9 percent, of the workforce, compared with California, which has 2.7 million union members, representing about 18 percent of the workforce.
Outside of mine strikes in the 1980s and in 2005, there have been few strikes in Arizona. There may never have been a general-grocery strike.
"In Arizona, many people have the attitude that if they don't like the conditions, they can vote with their feet and find another job," Phoenix labor lawyer Christopher Mason said.
The lack of widespread community support and division within the union itself could have undermined a strike had it occurred.
"I'm not sure how long they could have lasted," Mason said.
However, Stanley Lubin, another Phoenix labor lawyer, said that strikes take on a life of their own once they get started.
"I've seen strikes fail that looked like a piece of cake and ones succeed that seemed impossible," he said.
Lubin said he could not predict how the Arizona strike against Fry's and Safeway would have turned out, but he said that he perceived support for a strike against Safeway and Fry's.
"They (workers) felt like they were getting pushed around, and sometimes it takes a threat of a strike to get people's attention," he said.
The deal must be approved in a vote by the full union membership.
Details of the tentative settlement were not available at press time, but the deal is thought to include an improved health-care offer.
Negotiators had reached an impasse over a proposal by the companies that workers pay $5 to $15 weekly premiums depending on whether they have individual or family coverage. Under their old contract, workers paid nothing for health insurance.
Fry's and Safeway subsequently revised their offer to require only new hires to pay the premiums. The union rejected the revised offer, which also included 25-cent-per-hour raises in October 2010 and October 2011 and a $150 to $500 gift-card bonus for ratification.
