San Francisco Chronicle Gets it Wrong
Inaccurate Reporting Prolongs Strike/Lockout
Employers’ Proposal Would Lead To Elimination Of Affordable Health Care
The San Francisco Chronicle has ignored the facts of Safeway (Vons), Kroger (Ralphs) and Albertsons’ proposal, which has forced 70,000 grocery workers into the street for nearly four months. In the article, "Getting Personal: Safeway CEO Finds Himself at the Center of Labor Dispute," published on January 28, Carolyn Said inaccurately reported that the employers are only asking for $5-$15 per week health care contributions from employees. If this fight is only about $5-$15 per week, would thousands of working families choose to go without paychecks and risk losing their cars and homes?
The unreported fact is that the employers’ want a "cap" that would effectively eliminate affordable health care. The reality behind the employers’ public relations scam has long been definitively exposed. Two well-respected experts and university professors, E. Richard Brown of UCLA, and Richard Kronick of UC San Diego, conducted an independent analysis and found that for future employees the employers’ proposal would be the end of affordable health care altogether. In addition, the two professors concluded that current employees would face unbearable costs and/or wholesale cuts in benefits. The community would lose 70,000 jobs that come with health benefits and see a dramatic increase public expense for health care.
In fact, this analysis was published in the San Francisco Chronicle just a few weeks ago. But this article clearly failed to communicate the facts as reported by its own publication. As long as the Chronicle gives cover to the true nature of the employers’ demands, Safeway and its allies will be inclined to remain unyielding in their efforts to kill affordable health care in the supermarket industry.
Read the article and then email the Chronicle asaracevic@sfchronicle.com let them know the true facts: Safeway wants to eliminate health benefits for workers in the grocery industry.
 |
 |
