Los Angeles cardinal urges new talks in grocery, transit strikes

Published: 2003-10-28

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- As negotiations between employers and unions sputtered over health care coverage and costs, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles appealed to striking transit workers and grocery workers and their respective employers to resume talks. In an Oct. 18 statement, Cardinal Mahony asked workers from the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and their employers to consider the impact of the strikes on the economic well-being of all Southern Californians. Food workers have been on strike since Oct. 11, while transit workers left their jobs Oct. 13. Cardinal Mahony said the impasses in the strikes are "plunging our overall economic recovery into greater jeopardy." He said, "Both sides have a serious obligation to enter into full discussion, compromise and creative strategies to share the costs of adequate health care coverage." As grocers and the transportation authority fought to control the cost of health care and as workers battled to preserve the best deal they can, 400,000 transit riders and millions of grocery shoppers struggled to negotiate their daily tasks.

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