If you're forcing the store to shutdown when they don't want to shutdown, then it is illegal!

If you dont like the employment conditions, dont work there! If you dont like the products, dont shop there! How hard is that to figure out?

Meanwhile the rest of us have a RIGHT to spend our money there, and the store has a RIGHT to sell to us on their own PRIVATE PROPERTY.

Who do you think you are, getting in our way when we - the shoppers - are just minding our own business? The cops in this town are bad enough - now we have to deal with you too?

I am a police brutality activist, but if you even attempt to attack a mere grocery store in this manner, I HOPE you get shot. When your tactics target a grocery store and bring innocent customers into your crossfire as collateral damage, you've become part of the problem.

I plan on being at the store about 5:30 pm. No one is going to keep me from entering or shopping at that store. I am 6'2", 225, so I don't suggest you get in my way. This kind of fascist bullshit is why this strike will fail. And you can tell your union friends that bringing the criminal who used to run the miners back east was a lethal mistake. Labor violence will not be tolerated in California.

For a less emotional and more substantial introduction to the Southern California grocery workers' strike, check out my article:

santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7497/index.php

I am glad that some people have spoken out AGAINST this protest.

Before you brilliant people who are planning on protesting this protest go out of your way to do so, why dont you take a step back and look at this as a bigger issue than you personally not having the ability to shop at Safeway. This protest is not some pointless publicity stunt. If you havent ready anything about why these strikes are taking place, I suggest you do so. The healthcare of the workers inside this store is at jeopardy. All youre doing by shopping there during a strike is confirming to the corporation that runs safeway is that you are OK with them stripping the benefits of their employees. Please dont make such reactionary decisions. Realize that your decision to shop at Safeway is negatively affecting the lives of 70,000 striking unionmembers when you support safeway. These are peoples lives we're talking about. There are thousands of families that actually depend on the benefits that are about to be stripped from them.
Please try to see these issues from standpoints other than in the extremely selfish ways. Try to put yourself in the the shoes of someone who is about to lose their heathcare if this strike is not successful. Think about your own healthcare. does your work provide it? Do you pay for it yourself? Well these are people who absolutely depend on it, and dont have the priveledge that you might take for granted

If you'd take a moment to read my article, you'd see that I have read plenty about the Safeway strike -- from both sides. Hint: it is not sufficient to stop after reading the UFCW Web site!

Far from being selfish, I want to see Safeway thrive so that less pleasant employers like Wal-Mart don't get a foothold here. Wal-Mart wants to build 40 supercenters (grocery + general merchandise stores) in the Bay Area, and is already moving in on Contra Costa County (ballot measure in March).

Wal-Mart pays $11 per hour less than the unionized supermarket chains. (The $11 number includes wages and the employer's contribution to the cost of benefits.) Wal-Mart can undercut supermarket prices by 20%. The competition is fierce and supermarket chains inevitably lose.

Those who were protesting tonight at the Mission Street Safeway might as well have been filling out Wal-Mart job applications for the people working inside. Killing Safeway kills the jobs of Safeway employees. The employees will inevitably do worse at places like Wal-Mart.

Regarding health insurance, yes I do pay for my own, because I am an independent businessperson. You will see, in my article, some reasons why it's not good to have employers (or unions) buy health insurance. I favor a single-payer system, because my need for health care is not a function of my employment. Patching health plans, which is what UFCW wants Safeway to do, hinders the single-payer movement by making everything look okay. Fact is, you pretty much have to go to work for a large corporation or a government agency if you want health insurance today. That's not a solution.

Santa Cruz protesters are putting politics before people.

It isn't N. Cal Safeway employees who are striking - it's S. Cal employees! If you want to protest, drive down to LA. Seems to me the local Safeway employees here don't want your "help".

Rebels without a cause?

So anyway - yes you did hurt business there yesterday. I stepped inside to see for myself; pretty empty for 6pm. Congratulations. But did you stop to consider how this will hurt the employees there?

Employer and employee exist in a symbiotic relationship. You can't hurt one without hurting the other. How will this financial loss trickle down to the workers? One less job opening? Fewer promotions? Maintenance and upgrades that get delayed?

The grocer didn't want you there. The employees didn't want you there. The customers didn't want you there? So who were you there for?

Yourselves.

Clearly you are involved in this for all the wrong reasons. Please stop using the cause of social justice for your own ego gratification if you can't avoid doing more harm than good.

Thank you for striking Safeway. My stock is up roughly 20% since i bought it shortly after the strike began.

The only difference between Walmart and Safeway as employers is that the workers at Safeway have won union contracts that have bettered their situations.

As for northern California versus southern California protests/strikes what we are dealing with is all one company and needs to be shut down everywhere. Allowing Safeway to continue to make profits in other parts of the country, including here, is part of the failure of the strategy of the UFCW leadership. All union work for the company should cease to save the jobs and healthcare of the southern California workers.

Another part of this failure of the UFCW leaderships strategy is boycotting only one store when three companies are working together to break this strike.

Rank and file workers should demand the union misleadership join them in shutting down Vons/Safeway, Albertson's, Ralph's/Krogers!

ooo...6'2'' 225....yer sooo scary. A tire iron upside your head will bring you down.