To the Editor:
If ever there was a good example of why King City needs another major grocery store, it was Friday, July 22. Folks walking in the door at Safeway to do their weekend shopping were faced with a totally empty meat case. Not only was there no meat, there also was no fish.
The reason why this happened on a day when many folks get paid and can’t do any shopping until Friday is irrelevant. The fact that the only major grocery store in this city of nearly 15,000 people was totally shut down meant that shoppers either had to go meatless or get in their cars, if they even had a car and the money to buy gas, and drive up to Greenfield or Soledad.
King City Council has approved a new, 18,000-square-foot Grocery Outlet store to be built on Broadway near Denny’s, but the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 union has filed suit against building that store (“Union Objects to New Store,” July 20). What? I thought unions were supposed to support projects that would create more jobs.
And, get this, the union is based in Salinas. Those people couldn’t care less about us down here in King City. They’ve got Safeway, Knob Hill, Lucky, Walmart, Costco and Star Market — why would they care about King City having a second grocery store?
The union didn’t even let their members vote on whether or not to oppose the new King City Grocery Outlet store. Union bosses knew that if they filed suit against a little town struggling to make ends meet, they would block this store because King City doesn’t have the money to fight them in court.
Remember the last time this happened? King City now elects their council members by district instead of at-large because a certain Monterey County supervisor knew that if he filed suit to get districting in King City he would get his way. That supervisor doesn’t live here either. He lives up in Salinas.
Why do these people think they can run our town? It’s all about power, and we will be the losers if we don’t do something about it.
If you feel as strongly about this as I do, call up or write to the UFCW Local 5 union leadership and give them a piece of your mind. We need them to hear our voices on this issue. Meantime, there might even be a retired attorney out there who might take this case and fight it in the courts, pro bono, or at a drastically reduced rate so we can show these folks up in Salinas that we won’t be bullied.
Lee Schell
King City
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