Grocery Corporations Stonewall Union Negotiations See p. 4
The historic Vanderlip mansion, built in 1924, is the centerpiece of an 11.5-acre property hidden in the hill directly above Portuguese Bend on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It sold for $10.5 million in July 2020. Katrina Vanderlip, whose grandfather, Frank Vanderlip, is known as the “Father of Palos Verdes,” has initiated efforts to create a museum on the historical legacy of the Villa Narcissa, as it is known today.
“I always knew it was the exceptionally beautiful historical heart of our family,” Katrina
Vanderlip said in her recent newsletter.
Katrina said the new owner of the villa, Nina Ritter, is one of a kind. She has devoted her energy and finances to restoring historic buildings and gardens. She told Katrina it’s her family home and as long as there’s a bed in the villa, she is welcome to come stay there. Katrina is taking her up on the offer. She came to California this month to plan the museum. She said she really cares about this project, but she can’t do it all from the east coast.
“I don’t live in California any more so it has to be the local people,” Katrina said. “To organize and push their city to find the space and get both public and private funding for it. To collaborate to find a location, raise the money and do it.
I can do the furnishing and the recreating and make sure that it’s all authentic and correct inside. There will be educational programming too.”
Katrina emphasized that she’s not only encouraging the involvement of peninsula residents, but the people of San Pedro, too. She said the Vanderlips’
by Silvia Federici p. 9 exponentially, bringing in record profits for grocery companies, citing Ralphs’ parent company Kroger’s reported profits of up to $4 billion in 2021.
In a statement, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 770 said that corporations engage in illegal and covert tactics to prevent workers from exercising their rights and protections guaranteed to them by labor and federal laws.
Unionized contract workers work at Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions, Stater Bros. and Gelson’s supermarkets.
“When the pandemic hit, we showed up to work to make sure our community had food. We put our health and the health of our family at risk – and now corporate executives who hid in their offices and profited from our sacrifice refuse to share in the success and improve safety in our stores,” said Rachel Fournier, an employee for 17 years at Ralphs, in a statement.
Employees filed Unfair Labor Practices charges with the federal government’s National Labor Relations Board against Ralphs and Vons/Albertsons/Pavilions for violating labor laws by over-policing, intimidating and interfering with participating workers in union activities, for failing to bargain over bonuses offered to employees and improperly subcontracting work to outside contractors, among other labor law violations.
Charges were also filed with the NLRB against Stater Bros. after company managers violated federal labor law by attempting to bargain with individual workers and delaying negotiations.