Retail Clerks, Markets Reach Tentative Pact
Negotiators for 45,000 retail clerks and six major Southern California supermarket chains reached tentative agreement on a new three-year contract early Saturday, ending a 10-hour strike called by two of the eight union locals involved.
The pact was signed after a 24-hour bargaining session held at the Carson offices of the Food Employers Council, the organization that negotiates for Albertson’s, Lucky, Ralphs, Safeway, Stater Bros. and Vons. Those chains have 850 stores from San Luis Obispo to the Mexican border.
“I think it’s a victorious settlement,” said Rick Icaza, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, based in Los Angeles. Both Icaza and John Sperry, president of Food and Commercial Workers Local 324, based in Buena Park, said the unions got “about 85%” of what they wanted.
‘Strike Wouldn’t Be Good’
“We’re pleased,” said David Willauer, spokesman for the Food Employers Council.
“A strike in this business climate wouldn’t be good for either side,” he added, referring to the highly competitive Southern California supermarket industry. “Both sides compromised. The settlement is fair to the stores and the retail clerks.”
Neither side would officially disclose details of the contract pending ratification votes by union members. However, sources close to the negotiations told The Times that clerks will get lump-sum bonuses of up to $500 at the end of the first year of the contract and lump-sum bonuses of up to $1,000 at the end of the second year. At that time, a 50-cents-an-hour increase also will be added to the base wages of most employees, with a $300 bonus for box boys.
Sources also said that health care benefits would be increased, even though the employers will be able to lower by 50 cents an hour the amount of contributions they make to the employees’ health and welfare plan. This will be achieved by dipping into the $140-million surplus that now exists in the plan. Union sources said they thought that the change--which could save the stores $70 million to $80 million--could be made without endangering benefit levels in the future.
The presidents of the eight locals involved agreed unanimously to recommend acceptance of the contract to their members, who will begin voting on the agreement within a few days, as soon as their leaders can get summaries of the lengthy contract printed for presentation at meetings.
Ratification Vote
Icaza said Local 770 would have its meeting at the Shrine Auditorium on Tuesday, but presidents of other locals said their meetings would be held later in the week. A majority vote of those union members casting ballots is required for ratification.
The eight union leaders supporting the pact include two local presidents who took their members out on strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. They indicated Saturday that they believed that the union could have made a better deal if all the locals had walked out.
Michael Straeter, president of Local 1442, based in Santa Monica, said the union could have gotten a “much better package” if all eight locals had gone on strike. “That’s highly unlikely,” countered Bob Bleiweiss, a spokesman for several of the locals.
Despite their reservations about the process, Straeter and Tom Vandeveld, president of San Diego-based Local 135, said they would recommend approval of the contract to their members.
Pickets Halted
Shortly after the agreement was reached Saturday morning, picketing that had started at Ralphs stores in San Diego and the Santa Monica area was halted. Straeter and Vandeveld had directed their members to begin picketing 10 hours earlier, citing “a number of major unresolved issues.”
But the six other local presidents said at midnight Friday that they were sufficiently close to a settlement and they saw no point in starting a strike, even though it meant forgoing the strike deadline they had set earlier. At that time, some of those presidents indicated that they expected the deal to be wrapped up before dawn, but the talks dragged on for another 10 hours.
According to union and management sources, other major issues resolved in the negotiations included:
- Management’s attempt to expand the job duties of lower-paid workers, called “general merchandise clerks.” This was a thorny issue because these workers, now paid a top rate of $8.16 an hour, traditionally handle non-food items. Enlarging the scope of their jobs could endanger jobs of “food clerks,” who are now paid a top rate of $12.55 an hour and generally are people with more seniority. Management won the right to have the general merchandise clerks handle peanuts and drink mixes. In return, the union got the right to have food clerks handle paper plates.
- “Favored Nations” clause. The union persuaded management to drop the section of the contract that said if the union granted conditions more favorable to any other store than conditions in Food Employers Council stores, then the same conditions would automatically apply to council stores. The union considered this change important because it has been unable to modify its contracts with smaller, independent stores facing economic difficulty because of the clause.
- Job transfers. The union secured guarantees that members who work for one of the chains will be able to transfer to another store in the chain, even if an entire division closes down. The union considered this important because 9,000 members lost their jobs when Lucky’s GEMCO division closed in 1985. Those members did not have guaranteed rights to transfer to another Lucky store.
- Hours of work. About 70% of the union’s members work part-time. The union sought to secure a guarantee that all employees would be guaranteed 24 hours of work a week, up from 16 hours a week now. Management resisted on the grounds that it would be costly and hinder operating flexibility. The union backed off this demand.
- Pension benefits. They will be improved, but details were not available.
Not all major Southern California market chains were involved in the negotiations. Boys, Hughes, Mayfair and the Big Bear chain in San Diego all signed interim agreements with the union in the last two weeks that provide that they would accept the agreement the Food and Commercial Workers union reaches with the Food Employers Council.
The union also granted Alpha Beta an extension of its contract until 10 days after a pact was concluded with the council. Union leaders expressed confidence that there would not be great difficulty in reaching a new agreement with Alpha Beta.
