Labor Official Says Lucky Plan Is ‘Outrageous’

Labor union officials in San Diego Thursday expressed sadness and anger over Lucky Stores’ decision to close its Gemco stores.

“It’s outrageous that a situation like this can develop,” said Tom Vandeveld, president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 135, which represents about 1,500 workers at eight Gemcos in San Diego County. “They wait until the last minute,” he said, referring to Lucky, “and then people are told that (they) don’t have jobs.”

Five of Gemco’s San Diego County stores will be purchased by Dayton Hudson and reopened next year as Target stores, Dayton Hudson officials said Thursday.

Negotiations between labor and Lucky management over issues such as severance pay will begin as early as next week, officials said.

And, in Los Angeles today, the nine labor unions representing Gemco’s 9,000 Southern California employees will meet to discuss “what options we have and what courses of action we can take,” Vandeveld said.

Union leaders will also discuss the possibility of filing lawsuits and will analyze Gemco’s three-year labor contract searching for any provision violations, said Vandeveld. The contract was scheduled to expire in August.

Target Stores, a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Dayton Hudson, will purchase five of the closing Gemco stores in San Diego County, and, in the process, fulfill its long-standing desire to move into rapidly expanding North County, according to George Hite, Target executive vice president.

Three of the stores are in North San Diego County--Encinitas, Oceanside and Escondido, one is in Mira Mesa and the other is in El Cajon. Each store will employ about 225 people, Hite said.

“We picked the ones that best served our needs,” Hite said. “We’re pretty well represented in the central and southern (areas of) San Diego. We’ve long wanted to get good real estate opportunities in North County.”

Likely Change in El Cajon

Target will probably close its El Cajon facility and move into Gemco’s store there, he added.

It could be nearly one year before the stores reopen as Targets, and company officials “hope that long before we get there these people (Gemco employees) will have found other employment,” Hite said.

In any event, organized labor loses--Target is a non-union shop.

Vandeveld and his UFCW colleagues locked horns with Target in 1982 when Target, making its entry into San Diego, leased eight former FedMart locations here. FedMart’s closing threw 8,000 people out of work.

After remodeling, Target reopened about nine months later with 2,200 non-union employees. The action sparked a “Boycott Target” campaign by labor officials.

Vandeveld on Thursday criticized Lucky Stores for disposing of its Gemco outlets.

‘Something’s Wrong’

Gemco “isn’t really unprofitable, and just because they’re not earning enough, they’re forced to sell a part of their business in order to survive a hostile takeover,” Vandeveld said. “Something’s wrong.”

The laid-off Gemco workers will be given job placement and financial counseling, according to union and job-training program officials.

The Private Industry Council (PIC), which works with both the state’s Employment Development Department and labor unions, will develop a “re-employment plan” for the terminated workers, according to Bill Thomas, PIC’s executive director.

Consumers will also feel the Gemco closing. For the past five years, Gemco stores have ranked as supermarkets with the lowest prices in surveys conducted by the California Public Interest Research Group, according to Nancy Rader, the group’s consumer program director.

Target does not sell grocery products.