Markets, Clerks Remain Far Apart in Contract Talks

Negotiators for 60,000 Southern California retail clerks and six major grocery chains reported only glacial progress Friday in attempts to reach agreement on a new three-year contract and eliminate the threat of a supermarket strike.

Both sides said they are far apart on a number of issues, including job security, pensions and health benefits. Federal mediator Frank Allen was summoned for help several weeks ago, but his attempts to move the talks ahead have not been particularly successful.

Contract to Expire

The current contract expires Sunday and strike authorization votes are scheduled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Neither side would speculate on the prospects for a walkout. The supermarkets were last struck in 1985, when meat cutters and truck drivers walked out. The last strike by clerks was in 1978.

On Friday afternoon, the Food Employers Council, bargaining representative for about 850 markets, presented a modified contract proposal to the United Food and Commercial Workers, the union bargaining for the workers.

Rick Icaza, president of Los Angeles-based United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, the largest local, immediately called the employers’ proposal “ludicrous,” saying it calls for rollbacks from the current agreement.

He said the proposal also calls for a three-year freeze in base wage rates, although there would be $500 lump-sum bonuses each year. “We’re really discouraged,” he said.

‘Better Than Most’

David Willauer, spokesman for the Food Employers Council, said the proposal is “better than most” that clerks have agreed to recently around the nation. He acknowledged that the employers have proposed to reduce the amount of money they contribute to employee health and welfare plans, but said if the plan’s reserves drop below $60 million, employer contributions would be increased.

As the strike authorization vote nears, the stores have been taking applications for temporary replacement workers. And the unions have been preparing a direct-mail campaign that would urge thousands of patrons of two of the chains not to shop there during a strike.

Bargaining has been complicated this year because two chains--Hughes and Alpha Beta--dropped out of the Food Employers Council, necessitating separate talks with those chains. The council is now down to eight members--Albertson’s, Boys, Lucky, Mayfair Ralphs, Safeway, Stater Bros. and Vons. However, two of those chains, Boys and Mayfair, also have been negotiating separately.

Additionally, Safeway and Lucky are feeling pinched because of burdensome debts they took on during corporate restructuring in recent years.

Some sources also say the bargaining situation has been made more difficult because the eight food workers’ locals representing employees from the Mexican border to San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield are not unified on all the issues.

However, sources added that this problem abated in recent days with the arrival of Bill Olwell, the union’s national vice president in charge of collective bargaining.

Union leaders--including Icaza, John Sperry from Orange County and Tom Vandeveld from San Diego--all have said they want improvements in wages, health and dental coverage, pension benefits and job security.

Part-Time Workers

About two-thirds of the workers covered by the contracts have part-time jobs. The unions have been demanding that their members be guaranteed more hours of work, but employers have balked.

“Our general position is that the employers are not willing to take on any more contract restrictions that make it more difficult to operate the stores efficiently,” Willauer said. “More hours would be a restriction.”

He said that the Southern California supermarket industry is one of the most competitive in the nation, with narrow profit margins. He said the competition has intensified in recent years with the proliferation of so-called “cub” stores--large, warehouse-like operations that are not unionized--and by increased merchandising of food items by non-union discount stores like the Price Club.

“We feel we have to reduce our labor costs to become competitive and remain competitive,” Willauer said.

Bothersome Clause

Perhaps the major issue in the talks thus far has been the union’s demand for removal of a contract clause requiring that any wage or benefit concessions made by the union to small markets be matched with equal concessions to markets that are members of the council. Willauer said that council members need the clause so that they will not be undercut by other stores allowed to operate with lower labor costs.

He said established chain stores had been forced out of business in Chicago and Denver after the union gave new stores a more favorable contract.

But union official Icaza asserted that the provision could be removed from the contract without any adverse impact on council members. He said the union wanted the clause deleted so that it could offer more favorable terms to smaller markets that it currently has contracts with and others that it hopes to organize.

The other major issue in the talks so far has been a dispute over what constitutes the work of a “food clerk,” as compared with a “general merchandise clerk.” This is significant because a journeyman food clerk currently receives $12.55 an hour, while a general merchandise clerk makes $8.20 an hour. Employers are attempting to broaden the lower-paid category to reduce costs. The union is resisting on the grounds that it threatens the standard of living of many of its members.