FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONGRESSIONAL PANEL GATHERS AT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY IN L.A. TO DISCUSS SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ONGOING SO CAL GROCERY STRIKE

LOS ANGELES – February 13, 2004 – Congresswoman Linda Sánchez of the 39th District hosted a congressional panel at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles today to discuss the social and economic impact of the ongoing Southern California grocery strike. Rep. George Miller, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, Rep. Grace Napolitano joined Sanchez at the hearing to discuss employer-based healthcare benefits.

The hearing included statements from UFCW Local 1428 President Connie Leyva and Cathi Shafer, and from California Grocers Association President Peter Larkin, who spoke to an overflow crowd of about 250, including grocery workers from throughout Los Angeles.

With the strike now approaching its fourth month, Leyva stressed that “The fight for dollars and cents is not about supermarket megacorporations, but about working families. The battle for health benefits is about life and death, about dignity and deprivation.” Leyva stated that healthcare benefits must be “Universal, comprehensive, and affordable. [Families] should not have to make a decision between putting food on the table or taking [their] child to the hospital,” she added.

Calif. Grocers Association President Larkin read from a report from management consulting firm McKinsey and Company during his testimony. Larkin repeatedly quoted the report, saying that the competitive challenge facing retail stores today is really a hand-to-hand battle for survival. Said Larkin, “People in the food industry have an understanding that this is a people business – that employees are the lifeblood of the organization. Unfortunately, the strike is not good for both camps. The goal is to maintain good healthcare benefits, and I hope the discussions will result in getting that.”

Royball-Allard urged each side to “put a human face on these reports. There are no invisible walls between groups. You cannot simply look at these issues based on the bottom line because what happens to one group significantly impacts the other.”

About Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
Founded in 1911, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles is the eighth largest of the nation’s 28 Jesuit colleges and universities and the largest Catholic university in Southern California. With a strong base in the liberal arts, LMU serves more than 5,300 undergraduates and about 3,000 graduate students. LMU includes four colleges: the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, the College of Business Administration, the College of Communication and Fine Arts, and the College of Science and Engineering, as well as the School of Education, the School of Film and Television, the Graduate Division, Continuing education, and Loyola Law School. For more information, visit the LMU website at www.lmu.edu.

###