Labor Board to Hear Complaint by Union Striking Phil’s Food Stores

The National Labor Relations Board has scheduled an administrative hearing into charges that unfair labor practices have been used against striking employees by Phil’s Food Markets Inc., a family owned chain that operates grocery stores in La Crescenta, Sylmar and Lake View Terrace.

The charges stem from incidents at Phil’s Food Queen markets in La Crescenta and Sylmar during a 6-month-old strike by grocery store clerks who are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

Striking employees have accused Phil’s management of threatening employees with the loss of their jobs if they struck, of threatening to close a store if employees supported the union and of threatening employees on a picket line with physical violence.

In one of the charges, Mike Sirianni, son of the owner and a partner in the chain, is accused of driving his car in a reckless and dangerous manner through a line of picketing employees at the Sylmar store in December.

Hearing March 12

The labor board investigated the strikers’ charges and found them serious enough to merit a hearing, which was scheduled for March 12.

It is rare for the board to determine that there is clear enough evidence of a violation to warrant a hearing in a labor dispute. Nationwide, about 30% of such complaints go to hearings, according to Sid Rosen, assistant to the director of the NLRB’s Los Angeles region.

The food chain has filed its own complaint with the labor board, accusing the union of failing to bargain in good faith. That complaint is being investigated, said Carol Cloutier, a former Teamsters attorney who is representing Phil’s.

Cloutier said the company has a civil suit pending in Los Angeles County Superior Court that alleges that striking employees committed several acts of vandalism. She said damage included a large bullet hole in the window of the Sylmar store, severed telephone wires at the La Crescenta store and obscene graffiti painted on Phil’s buildings and trucks.

Walked Off Job in August

The grocery store clerks, some of whom were employed by Phil’s for 20 years, walked off their jobs in August after the chain declined to accept the conditions of a contract negotiated between the union and the Food Employers Council Inc., which represents 11 major supermarket chains.

Phil’s, an independent market founded by owner Phil Sirianni 34 years ago, is not a member of the council.

Most of the 75 employees who struck have been replaced by non-union workers, and business at the three stores is back to about 90% of normal, the stores’ owners said.

At the heart of the dispute are the pension and medical plans outlined in the Food Employers Council contract, which Phil’s management says it cannot afford.

Independent Deals Limited

In past years, Phil’s representatives said, smaller independent markets were able to negotiate separate contracts patterned after council contracts. But the August contract limits independent deals.

Phil’s representatives said the smaller market chains need to negotiate their own contracts with their employees in order to survive. Striking employees and union representatives, however, allege that Phil’s is engaging in union-busting tactics.

Under terms of the Food Employers Council contract, health and pension benefits are extended to all employees who work a guaranteed 16 hours or more. Phil’s is offering health and pension benefits only to employees who are 21 or older and who work at least 25 hours a week.

Striking employees say the chain’s offer is substandard and contains no guarantee that an employee’s hours would not be cut back in order to eliminate the cost of paying health and pension benefits.

Mike Sirianni, spokesman for the chain, dismissed the charges filed with the labor board as harassment, saying there was no truth to any of the union’s allegations.