Supermarket Strike Talks Grind On Through 7th Day

Negotiations between representatives of seven supermarket chains and the Teamsters Union ground on for the seventh consecutive day Tuesday, with both sides predicting that unless a settlement is reached quickly the talks will break down and the 36-day-old Southern California market strike will run through the end of the year.

“I think we’re getting close to where we’ll have an agreement or it (the strike) will go on to the first,” said Jerry Vercruse, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 630 and chief negotiator for the union.

About 12,000 Teamsters and 10,000 meat cutters and meat wrappers are on strike against Vons and locked out of six other chains: Alpha Beta, Albertson’s, Hughes, Lucky, Ralphs and Safeway. About 1,000 stores are affected.

Market negotiators have been focusing on talks with the Teamsters, whose contract is considered more difficult to iron out than the meat cutters’. Meat cutter representatives are monitoring the negotiations and plan to resume bargaining when the Teamster talks are either settled or break off.

So far, progress has been slow, according to federal mediator Frank Allen, who said the most optimistic indication is the fact that both sides have been willing to remain at the bargaining table this long. Earlier in the strike, talks broke off on several occasions.

Both unions have vowed not to return to work until both pacts are signed.

The biggest sticking point in the Teamster dispute is the markets’ desire to adopt a substantially lower wage scale for new employees. The Teamsters have flatly opposed this so-called “two-tier” wage provision, which many industries have employed to cut labor costs.

David Willauer, a spokesman for the Food Employers Council, which represents the supermarkets, said market negotiators have offered to apply the two-tier system to only a portion of newly hired workers. But Vercruse said in an interview Tuesday that Teamsters will not accept that kind of compromise.