Ralphs Agrees to Court Pact on Improving Minority Jobs
Ralphs Grocery Co. agreed Monday to improve job and promotion opportunities for blacks and Latinos at the supermarket chain’s 126 stores in Southern California.
The agreement was contained in a proposed settlement of a federal class-action suit filed against Ralphs by the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Center for Law in the Public Interest.
The settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, will increase black and Latino employment by at least 1,000 jobs and will result in several hundred promotions, according to Melanie Lomax, vice president and general counsel for the NAACP Los Angeles chapter.
Besides establishing a future employment policy, the agreement calls for payment of $32,500 to four employees who claimed in the suit that they had been victims of discriminatory practices at Ralphs.
‘Very Pleased’
“We are very pleased with the settlement, because Ralphs is one of the giants of the supermarket industry and this could prove a model to others in the industry,” Lomax said.
Ralphs vice president Jan Charles Gray generally agreed with Lomax’s estimate of jobs and promotions to be created by the decree, and added, “We too are happy to reach a quick and satisfactory resolution to this matter . . . rather than have protracted litigation over demographics and statistics.”
Gray and Lomax, however, did not agree on past employment policies at Ralphs.
Gray said the agreement reached Monday was “consistent with Ralphs’ 112-year history of equal employment opportunity.” However, Lomax said the chain has “used discriminatory subjective criteria and nepotism in its decision-making on hiring and promotions.”
Past Policies
Another NAACP lawyer, Pearl Lattaker, cited as an example of past policies at Ralphs the case of Minnie Hadley, the lead plaintiff in the class-action suit.
‘Minnie never advanced beyond a cashier’s job in 15 years with Ralphs, despite being a model employee who received outstanding performance evaluations and employee awards,” Lattaker said. “While working for the chain, she obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in management, hoping they would lead to promotions. But it never happened.”
Hadley, now a schoolteacher, will receive a $15,000 payment from Ralphs as part of the agreement.
“The money is important, but the principle is more important, because I filed this suit not only for myself but also to help other minorities who will come after me,” Hadley said.
Under the agreement, Ralphs agreed to allot 20% of its entry-level hiring to Latinos. No figure was included for entry-level hiring of blacks.
The consent decree also provides that 25% of the journeyman-level jobs would be held by Latinos and blacks and that 20% of the department head positions would go to these minorities.
One area that the two sides could not come to agreement on was the maintaining of supermarkets in minority communities.
“In every settlement there is an element of compromise,” Lomax said, “and we regret that we were unable to get a commitment from Ralphs regarding maintaining stores in the minority communities.
“Ralphs has closed seven stores in black and minority areas in recent years and has no intention of reopening them. We believe that there is a corporate responsibility to maintain a presence in the minority community.”
Gray said the supermarket chain could not make such a commitment “for obvious economic reasons,” and added, “There is no obligation to operate locations at a business loss.”
Bitter Dispute
Ralphs agreement with the NAACP comes at a time when the chain is locked in a bitter dispute with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents Ralphs employees.
The union claims that in the past 16 months, Ralphs has laid off or demoted 1,800 workers in violation of its contract. The union alleges that the company has been replacing veteran cashiers with younger, less experienced employees who are paid about $4 an hour less than the people they replace.
Ralphs says it has laid off only 173 workers, but company officials acknowledge that many others have been moved to positions paying lower wages. The company has said it has been necessary to cut labor costs to stay competitive in the marketplace.
