by Secret Shopper
Friday, Feb. 20, 2004 at 10:54 PM
An account of the rally held on February 19, 2004 in support of striking and locked-out workers at Vons in San Pedro, California.
While mainstream radio and television media organizations sent all of their reporters and cameras to West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Mission Viejo today to cover three well-attended rallies in support of striking and locked out UFCW supermarket workers, a fourth demonstration in the harbor community of San Pedro was easily as crowded and a great deal more boisterous.
Several hundred members of the community, along with members of various unions including Teamsters and--as usual in harbor-area labor rallies--a sizeable contingent of ILWU longshoremen and marine clerks, joined UFCW picketers at the Vons supermarket on 13th and Gaffey in San Pedro for an extremely vocal rally that effectively shut down the store for several hours and brought an impressive police response.
Fired-up demonstrators roared "Scabs go home!" at the replacement workers and (mostly non-existent) shoppers holed up in the store. Participants formed a human chain in front of all three entrances to the market--although in truth this was hardly necessary given the size of the crowd and the pro-striker sentiment that prevails in San Pedro--and were in due course hauled away by riot-helmeted LAPD officers, to the cheers of the crowd.