by John Kawakami
Saturday, Oct. 25, 2003 at 7:50 PM
Photos from the Vons rally in Alhambra on the 23rd. This event was organized by the UFCW and Asian Pacifican American Labor Alliance.
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The ethnic media was out in force to cover this rally for the supermarket strike. 10,000, or 1/7th, of supermarket workers on strike are API, and it's important that their community support them. (The proportion who work at ethnic markets is proportionately larger, of course.)
The local speakers who came out include the UFCW president, Judy Chu (popular local assembly rep from MPK), Warren Furutani (an old AA movement activist), John Delloro of APALA, and Diana Davis (Vons worker and union member). (I missed more than a few in this list, because I got there late.)
An estimated 150 to 200 people showed up to support the strikers or check out the scene. They made a hell of a noise, and you could hear them across the parking lot and on the street. The store was fairly vacant, and most of the people going in were just there to deposit checks at the bank branch inside.
One of the best displays was an actual budget by a striker who works at the Ralph's in Koreatown. He was unable to make the rally due to a family health emergency, but his budget is shown in the photo below.
