Supermarket Workers Ready for Midnight Strike : Labor: As last-minute negotiations continued, 80,000 clerks and meat cutters prepared to walk the picket line.

While negotiations in a Carson office sputtered Monday, union representatives of 80,000 supermarket clerks and meat cutters spent the day preparing picket signs, telephoning picket captains and making other preparations for a possible midnight strike against 800 markets from San Diego to Bakersfield.

By late Monday afternoon, it seemed virtually certain that talks would continue until midnight, with a strike likely to be called by the United Food and Commercial Workers at six chains this morning if no settlement had been obtained by the union-imposed deadline.

Vons, Ralphs, Alpha Beta, Lucky, Stater Bros. and Albertson’s markets would be affected.

Despite much public pessimism, observers hinted that the odds still favored a settlement.

The union retained the option of negotiating past the midnight deadline, but union spokesmen officials said there was little chance of that happening.

Workers, represented by 10 locals of the UFCW, have been working without a new contract since the old one expired July 30. Last week, they promised a federal mediator that they would continue negotiating until at least midnight Monday.

Further extending the deadline is “a highly unlikely option,” union spokesman Michael O’Rourke said Monday afternoon. “The union is very strong that this is as far as we can go.”

Officials of the Food Employers Council, which negotiates on behalf of the six chains, said they had been making preparations for a possible strike for weeks and were not bending on issues they described as critical to their competitiveness.

The markets have interviewed, screened and trained thousands of strikebreakers, who have been placed on call. The markets have also stocked their warehouses with extra amounts of fast-moving merchandise.

Food Employers Council spokesman David Willauer said that in case of a strike, if a strike occurs, the markets will be staffed by a combination of strikebreakers, managers with experience on the market floor and workers willing to cross picket lines.

Jim Stephenson, director of the Food Industry Management program at USC, predicted that a strike of up to a month’s duration would not significantly disrupt the markets or customers. Supermarkets “have fooled with strikes so long they seem to handle it pretty well. No one will have to hoard their pantries. It’s not like a gas shortage. The markets have integrated the handling of strikes into their management systems,” he said.

In past strikes, the union has picked a target chain, and the other chains have responded by locking out their workers.

Southern California executives of the Teamsters said that in case the event of a strike by 73,000 clerks and 7,000 meat cutters, workers who drive delivery trucks will stop at picket lines, forcing the markets to use additional personnel to drive and unload the trucks.

The Hughes and Boys chains, which also employ UFCW members, would not be affected by a strike because they have signed interim agreements to accept whatever settlement is reached.

The last Southland supermarket strike occurred in 1985, when meat cutters and drivers struck. Retail clerks last struck in 1976.

Like many recent strikes throughout the country, money has become a secondary issue compared to concerns of job security and health benefits.

Supermarket clerks now earn between $4.25 and $13.05 an hour. Meat cutters earn from $9.31 to $14.33 an hour.

The most recent offer made public by the supermarkets would provide three-year raises of between 9.8% and 10.7% to journeymen employees. The average collective bargaining agreement negotiated during the first half of 1990 contains an 11.4% increase over three years.

Union leaders said “take-aways” in the proposal are far greater than the financial gains. They said the markets want to raise the number of work hours each week before entry-level clerks can become eligible for health benefits, allow lower-paid clerks to take over duties now performed by higher-paid workers and expand the use of non-union vending companies.

Following a national trend, the markets also want to limit the flexibility of current medical benefits programs.

Willauer said the union was falsely portraying the markets’ intentions. He said vendors already work extensively in markets and the markets had simply requested contract wording to reflect that.

Willauer has portrayed the markets as under intense pressure to hold costs down to compete with non-union companies, particularly large warehouse-style markets that pay lower wages.

Union leaders say the markets are exaggerating their problems and in some cases created them by heavy borrowing.

Industry analysts say the six chains are generally healthy. Vons Cos., which leads the Southern California supermarket industry with about 25% of all stores, last month announced its third consecutive quarterly profit.

Vons, which lost $54 million after acquiring 162 former Safeway stores in 1988, earned $16 million in the second quarter of 1990 on sales of $1.2 billion.

Ralphs Grocery Co., struggling against heavy debt it assumed when it left the Campeau Corp. in 1988 to become an independent company, narrowed its first-quarter loss to $4 million this year, compared to $7 million in the first quarter of 1989. The company expects to open 39 new stores later this year and in 1991.