Limit on Store Pickets Extended

In an unusual Sunday court session apparently prompted by violence during the five-day strike against Southern California grocery chains, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has extended a restraining order limiting pickets at more than 160 Vons markets.

The order by Judge Norman L. Epstein, which restricts pickets by striking Teamsters, supplements two earlier orders restraining retail clerks and meat cutters, an attorney for Vons said. The order goes into effect immediately.

“Vons has been the focus of most of the picketing activities by the unions,” said attorney Keith Eyrich. “We feel an obligation to our customers to prevent the kind of disruptive tactics and things the unions have been doing.”

The order prohibits Teamsters from mass picketing, from blocking entrances and driveways near the stores and from blocking loading docks and receiving areas where truckers make deliveries.

Talks between the striking food workers and the Food Employers Council, representing seven major supermarket chains, broke off Saturday before the discussions actually got under way. Officials for both sides said Sunday they did not know when bargaining would resume.

An official with the union representing the meat cutters union said its members are prepared for a long walkout.

“We are prepared to stay out six weeks but we can go longer than that,” said D. (Whitey) Ulrich, president of Local 551 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which is on strike along with the Teamsters.

Rumor Accusation

Ulrich on Sunday accused the council representing the stores of circulating a rumor that a tentative agreement with the meat cutters had been reached.

“This infamous deal does not exist,” he said. “No deal has been reached with the butchers.”

Jack Brown, chief executive officer of Stater Bros., also denied reports that he had signed an interim agreement with the two striking unions, as have six other market chains.

“I have not signed any interim agreement with any union,” Brown said in a telephone interview.

A company signing an interim agreement binds itself to accept whatever contract is ultimately negotiated with the Food Employers Council and the unions. The company would not be picketed during the strike.

The unions had announced their agreement with the 94-market Stater Bros. chain Friday. Asked for clarification Sunday, three union sources said that Stater Bros. had orally agreed to the same interim contract already signed by Big Bear, Boys, Foods Co., Gelsons, Mayfair and Pioneers markets.

When asked if he had made an oral agreement, Brown would not comment.

David Willauer, a spokesman for the Food Employers, said of Stater Bros.: “For all practical purposes, they’re like Boys,” one of the chains that signed an interim agreement. “They’re not going to lock out their employees, period.”

Willauer said no Stater Bros. representative had participated in negotiating sessions with other council members since Thursday.

The markets and the striking food workers are stalemated on two key issues, although both sides indicated they are still far apart on other issues as well. Management wants to subcontract more work to reduce labor costs, a move that Teamsters believe would cost jobs for their members.

Management also wants to introduce a new, lower-paid job classification called a “meat clerk,” to perform about 70% of the tasks now handled by meat cutters and to reduce the number of hours a store is required to have a journeyman meat cutter on duty. Meat cutters claim this would reduce their 40-hour guaranteed work week to 20 hours.

The strike, which was called Tuesday against Vons markets, was substantially widened when several other chains locked out all workers represented by the Teamsters and the meat cutters’ union. The strike is affecting markets throughout Southern California.

Dozens of people have been arrested and more than 10 injured in brawls and other violence since the work stoppage began.

The chairman of Ralphs supermarkets Sunday announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a driver of a pickup truck who rammed a car filled with non-union workers Friday. Ralphs is also offering $1,000 rewards for information on major acts of vandalism against the market or its workers.

Times staff writers Ray Perez and Henry Weinstein contributed to this report.