Pace Slows as Talks on Market Pact Continue : Labor: Some union leaders appear to chafe at idea of indefinite negotiation. They say a strike is still possible if progress stops.
Negotiators for 80,000 supermarket workers and 800 markets were still trying to reach agreement on a new three-year contract late Tuesday night after narrowly averting a strike Monday.
Snail-like progress was reported. The talks appeared to have lost the sense of urgency that existed Monday night, when negotiators labored under a union-imposed midnight strike deadline.
It appeared that talks could continue until dawn today as they did Tuesday.
However, some union leaders seem to be chafing at the notion of negotiating indefinitely. Union spokesman Michael O’Rourke said the union still reserved the right to strike with only 90 minutes’ notice.
“If we don’t see progress, (a strike is) a possibility,” said Rick Icaza, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, one of the 10 UFCW locals involved in the negotiations. However, he added, “I think we’re going to go 24 hours, if necessary, to get this thing finished.”
“The wheels of progress have slowed down,” said David Willauer, spokesman for the Food Employers Council, which is negotiating on behalf of Ralphs, Vons, Alpha Beta, Lucky, Stater Bros. and Albertson’s.
Willauer attributed the slowness to a “physical wearing down” on both sides and “a narrowing of differences that makes it harder and harder to achieve a lot of progress.”
He said he remained optimistic.
The union had set its Monday settle-or-strike deadline after a month and a half of fruitless bargaining on a new contract.
But five hours before the deadline the two sides reached their first significant compromise. Ninety minutes before the deadline the union agreed to “stop the clock” and bargain past midnight.
Negotiations went on until 5 a.m. Tuesday, when the fatigued participants agreed to take a break.
Monday night was the third time in nine days that the union had backed off from a strike deadline.
The first occurred July 30, the night the old contact expired. A revised offer from the Food Employers Council encouraged the union to keep talking, but negotiations broke off a day later. The markets made another contract offer last week, which was rejected by more than 90% of the union members who voted on it. The union threatened to strike on Friday. But intervention by Allen persuaded the union to move the deadline to Monday night.
Sticky issues included union demands for more guaranteed hours of work, supermarket demands for a less expensive and less flexible medical benefit package, and the union’s demand for restrictions on the use of non-union vendors.
The first sign of progress Monday night was a compromise on the markets’ use of prepackaged meat as opposed to meat cut and wrapped in the market by union members. Sources familiar with the negotiation said markets agreed to limit prepackaged meat to 50% of a store’s supply.
Union leaders indicated Tuesday that they were backing off from their demand that markets raise the number of guaranteed weekly hours, a sensitive subject in an industry where two-thirds of the work force consists of part-time employees.
The markets wantto tie an increase in guaranteed hours to an increase in the number of hours required to qualify for health benefits. Their proposal would effectively make entry-level clerks ineligible for health-maintenance-organization benefits.
“There are still some major issues out there,” said Tom Vanderveld, president of San Diego-based Local 135.
The national leadership of the UFCW has come under criticism in recent years for approving concessionary contracts. According to a 1989 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, three-quarters of UFCW members covered by new contracts between 1986 and 1988 were forced to accept concessions.
In public statements, union leaders involved in the Southland dispute have insisted they would not accept such “takeaways.”
Union sources said Tuesday they believed their bargaining position had been bolstered by strong support from Teamster union executives, who represent market truck drivers. The sources said the Teamsters promised not only to stop delivery trucks at supermarket picket lines, but to refuse to drive trucks out of outlying warehouses if striking clerks and meat cutters picketed there.
The six market chains will be bargaining on a new contract with Teamsters next year.
About 73,000 supermarket clerks now earn between $4.25 and $13.05 an hour. About 7,000 meat cutters earn from $9.31 to $14.33 an hour.
The most recent pay offer made public by the supermarkets would provide three-year raises of between 9.8% and 10.7% to journeyman employees. The average collective bargaining agreement negotiated during the first half of 1990 contains an 11.4% increase over three years.
