OTHER NEWS - June 4, 1992

Safeway Lays Off 100 at New Center: A month after Safeway opened a giant distribution center in Tracy, Calif., 100 workers have been laid off, union officials said. Barbara Crum of Specialized Distribution Management Inc., the contractor hired to run the warehouse, said many of those laid off will be recalled. “Some workers just aren’t making it,” she said, “but mostly it’s a matter of us being overstaffed and gearing up more quickly than anticipated.” Before the layoffs, the warehouse employed 903. The distribution center, which replaced older warehouses in Richmond and Fremont, was the subject of a bitter, three-month dispute between Teamsters Joint Council 7 and Safeway, which initially refused to transfer workers to the new center.