Alpha Beta to Spare 185 Jobs at Warehouse

Alpha Beta Supermarkets announced Monday that it would not close a Fullerton warehouse, forcing the layoff of 185 workers, because the Teamsters Union has agreed to a plan that dramatically cuts the wages of newly hired workers--an assertion immediately denied by Teamsters officials.

Alpha Beta had threatened to close the warehouse on the grounds that it could no longer afford to keep the facility open. Company officials said closure was averted when union members agreed Saturday to a new two-tiered wage scale at the warehouse.

But Teamster officials emphatically denied that members approved the company wage proposal.

“What the membership voted on was a motion to go to the Teamsters’ Southwest Food Council and ask them to reopen negotiations with the employers on the master contract with regard to only that warehouse,” said Gerold Scott, secretary-treasurer of Local 592 in Orange, which represents the warehouse workers.

Scott did admit that an informal poll of 140 warehouse workers attending a meeting at union headquarters Saturday showed they were willing to accept the company’s proposal for a two-tiered wage system, under which new employees would be hired at a lower pay scale than current employees.

“But they couldn’t and didn’t vote on it,” said Scott, explaining that all union members involved in the recently settled 7 1/2-week strike and lockout are covered by a single, master contract.

However, Dave Willauer, a spokesman for the Food Employers Council, disagreed.

“The union submitted the company’s offer to the membership Saturday, and the members ratified it,” Willauer said. “As far as the company is concerned, because ratification is the last stage in the process, when that occurred, it was over. We have agreed to discontinue the phasing out of the operation.”

Under the master contract, experienced warehouse workers already employed are paid $13.85 per hour, while future employees would start at $9.69. Alpha Beta’s proposal for its general merchandise warehouse in Fullerton calls for the starting wage for new workers to be $6.54 per hour.