Food Stores Stock Shelves for Walkout : Labor: A strike threatened for today would affect nearly all supermarkets. Although stores alerted customers, few shoppers seem concerned.

Almost every major supermarket in Ventura County will be affected if grocery clerks and meat cutters carry out a threatened strike today.

Managers at the 41 stores facing a strike were bringing in extra help to stock shelves before the midnight Monday deadline. Several managers said they had temporary employees trained to replace workers who join the strike.

Workers said they expected a strike and, for the most part, supported it.

“We have to. It’s getting too hard to keep up,” said an off-duty cashier at an Alpha Beta in Ventura. “I’m not Miss Radical or anything. I’d do anything to avoid a strike.” For her, the main issue was proposed cutbacks in benefits.

Although signs in store windows and newspaper ads alerted customers to the possibility of a strike, few seemed to be concerned.

“I don’t expect it to affect us,” said Mary Appling of Camarillo as she left the Vons store on Arneill Road. “The last time there was a strike, we weren’t even inconvenienced.”

Although Appling spent $128 Monday, she said it was a normal two weeks’ worth of groceries for her family of four. She happened to be shopping on the eve of the strike, she said, “because my husband just got paid.”

Appling said she expects the labor dispute to be settled by the time she needs more groceries. If it continues, a picket line wouldn’t stop her “if it meant going hungry.”

In interviews, most shoppers said they were aware of the impending strike but did not think it would affect their ability to buy food.

“We have to eat,” said Terri Gibbons, who was shopping with daughter Sara at a Ralphs store in Camarillo. Like most shoppers interviewed Monday, Gibbons said she would cross a picket line if necessary.

Unless negotiators reached an agreement by midnight Monday, pickets were set to march outside about 800 stores in Southern California. In Ventura County, the strike would affect 18 Vons stores, eight Alpha Beta markets, six Ralphs stores, five Albertson’s markets and four Lucky stores. Among the major chains, only Hughes, which has four stores in Ventura County, is not involved in the negotiations.

Most stores are completely unionized except for the manager and assistant managers.

Several employees said their stores have stockpiled staples such as toilet paper and canned goods. Daniel Gonzales, frozen food manager at a Ralphs in Ventura, said he was scheduled to work at midnight Monday but was brought in early because of the strike threat.

“If we strike, it will only be for a day or two,” predicted Gonzales, who recalled the last major supermarket strike in 1985, an eight-week walkout.

Only 8.9% of the work force in Ventura County is unionized, but one store manager predicted that most employees and shoppers would honor picket lines at first. After a few days, he said, shoppers will cross picket lines if the negotiators fail to reach an agreement.

“They haven’t even started talking yet,” said the manager, who asked not to be identified. “They start out with the union asking for day care and company-paid car insurance; the companies start out wanting to cut their pay to $4 an hour. Then they come together.”

He said the big problem for the supermarket chains is discount outlets like Price Club and Costco “that pay their employees a lot less than our people make.”

Supermarket clerks now earn between $4.25 and $13.05 an hour. Meat cutters earn from $9.31 to $14.33. Although some grocery employees are part-timers working after school, many have to support a family on their supermarket paycheck.

“I’m covered by my parents,” said Shawn Houchin, 17, a bagger at a Ralphs in Ventura who said he supports the strike. Although he is satisfied with the $4.25 he makes per hour, “lots of single parents work here” and need to preserve their benefits, he said.

The supermarkets’ most recent offer would provide raises of 9.8% to 10.7% to veteran employees, spread over three years.

Most employees said benefits, pensions and job security are the main points of disagreement.

Gil Esparza, deli manager at a Vons in Ventura, said a key issue is the companies’ effort to allow unlimited stocking by distributors, which could cost union members--especially part-timers--their jobs.

He said he expects most workers to support the strike. “The only ones who won’t support it are the ones who live from check to check,” he said.