3 More Violent Incidents Linked to Market Strike

Violence attributed to the stalemated Southern California supermarket labor dispute continued Tuesday as a truck full of food was destroyed by fire in Lancaster, a fire bomb was thrown onto a loading dock in La Crescenta and a hole was blasted through a supermarket delivery truck as it sped down a freeway in East Los Angeles.

No one was injured in the incidents.

About 60 people have been arrested and about 15 injured since the Teamsters and United Food and Commercial Workers Union went on strike against Vons markets and another six chains--Alpha Beta, Albertson’s, Lucky, Hughes, Safeway and Ralphs--responded by locking out members of the two unions.

The strike centers on demands by the markets that both unions agree to relaxation of union rules. Management says changes in the rules are needed to cut costs. Labor contends the changes would threaten job security.

The most recent round of unproductive negotiations Friday and Saturday resulted in the breaking off of talks, but federal mediator Frank Allen said Tuesday that the Food Employers Council, which represents the chains, had requested the renewal of talks this afternoon with the Teamsters.

No Suspects

Sheriff’s deputies said they believe that Tuesday’s incidents were related to the strike but said they had no suspects.

The first incident occurred shortly after midnight when a tractor-trailer rig loaded with food was set afire and destroyed behind a Vons market on Avenue J in Lancaster. A sheriff’s spokesman said the loss was estimated at $65,000.

Then, around 7 a.m., a fire bomb was thrown onto a loading dock crowded with semitrailers at an Alpha Beta market in La Crescenta. The sheriff’s spokesman said the fire was extinguished immediately, doing no damage to the loading dock.

At about 2 p.m., a substitute driver for Alpha Beta was driving north on the Santa Ana Freeway near the Indiana Avenue off-ramp when a hole was blasted in his truck’s windshield by what the driver said he believed was gunfire.

A sheriff’s spokesman said a crossing guard in the area told deputies she heard what sounded like a gunshot about the time of the incident. But investigators were unable to find evidence of ammunition in the cab of the vehicle and said the blast could have been from a slingshot-like device, which has been used to attacksupermarket vehicles in other incidents.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer issued a temporary order prohibiting Lucky and Alpha Beta supermarket workers from harassing or threatening Teamsters pickets at the chains’ warehouses.

The judge issued the order, which applies to Lucky’s Irvine and Buena Park facilities and Alpha Beta’s La Habra warehouse, based on declarations from strikers from Teamsters Local 952. They claimed that truck drivers entering and leaving the facilities have run down pickets and shouted obscenities and taunts.

Last week, Shimer extended a court order that requires the Teamster strikers not to block entrances, conduct mass picketing, throw objects or harass workers at grocery store distribution centers.