Teamsters Threaten to Strike Lucky Stores : Labor: The union is upset about plans to shift work away from Orange County warehouses to lower-paying facilities.
About 1,700 Teamsters in Orange County who warehouse and deliver food to 235 Lucky Stores in Southern California are threatening to strike the supermarket chain unless they reach a new contract agreement by midnight Sunday.
Negotiations are set for this weekend, and both the union and the company say they are hoping for a settlement. But Teamsters and Lucky officials acknowledged Wednesday that they have made little headway since contract talks began in mid-July, and both sides are girding for the worst.
Lucky, a unit of American Stores Co. of Salt Lake City, said replacement workers are ready to keep the stores stocked should a walkout be called. But a work stoppage by the Teamsters, especially if they are joined by union food clerks at the stores, could hamper the area’s No. 2 supermarket chain at a time when major food companies are scrambling for an advantage in this intensely competitive market.
The Teamsters union has already reached contract agreements with most of the other major supermarket chains in Southern California, including Vons Cos., now restructuring to become more efficient, and Ralphs Grocery Co., which is considering a merger with Yucaipa Cos., the owner of Alpha Beta supermarkets.
Lucky’s dispute with the Teamsters is not over wages and benefits. Rather, it centers on the company’s ability to move distribution and warehouse work from Orange County.
Lucky has long operated three main distribution centers in Buena Park, Irvine and Fullerton, and those served all of Lucky’s Southern California stores and 20 in Nevada. But earlier this summer, Lucky’s parent company opened a 200,000-square-foot warehouse in Fontana, and soon after the company shifted liquor products there from its warehouse in Buena Park.
Lucky spokeswoman Judy Decker says the company needs the flexibility to move work among its Southern California warehouses to operate efficiently. Lucky’s parent company also owns Sav-On Drugs in California, and the new Fontana warehouse now houses liquor products that are delivered to both Lucky and Sav-On stores, Decker said, thus reducing overlapping delivery routes.
But Teamsters Local 952, the Orange-based union that represents the workers at the three Lucky warehouses in Orange County, said the shift in liquor products will cost at least 22 of its members their jobs. Moreover, the union worries that Lucky will transfer other products to Fontana or other lower-paying sites.
About 80 people who work at Lucky’s Fontana facility are represented by another Teamsters local, and they are paid about $12 an hour--$4.60 less than workers at the Orange County sites.
“There’s no way we can allow the company to move work somewhere else without the workers,” said Jerry Vercruse, chairman of the Teamsters negotiating committee. “If they can do it with (liquor), they can do it with other products,” he said.
Decker denied that any Local 952 jobs would be lost because of the Fontana plant, and she said there are no plans to shift any other products out of Orange County. Decker said Lucky has made significant investments in its Orange County warehouse facilities and is not about to walk away from them. But she said the company should be able to “move work within warehouses where we think it’s most effective.”
A state or federal mediator is expected to join in the weekend negotiations, which will be closely watched by Lucky’s 22,362 employees in Southern California. A strike could affect sales as well as hours of operation at stores.
The United Food and Commercial Workers, the other major union that represents Lucky’s employees, is informing its members of a possible boycott and strike--which UFCW members would decide individually to honor or ignore.
Lucky is one of only two major supermarket chains in Southern California without a new agreement with the Teamsters. The other is Albertson’s, which has its central warehouse facility in Brea. Talks with Albertson’s are progressing more smoothly than with Lucky, union officials said, and a new agreement is expected soon.
In the past, the Teamsters had negotiated a single contract with all of the major supermarket chains through the Food Employers Council. But this year, the food companies decided to iron out separate pacts.
