Nonunion-Market Trend Attacked

Efforts by organized labor to slow the proliferation of nonunion lower-wage supermarkets catering to Latinos got a boost Tuesday at a hearing called by state legislators clearly sympathetic to the union cause.

Speaking in Los Angeles to members of the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment, half a dozen union officials and supermarket workers painted a grim picture of the impact such niche markets are having on employees--and the Latino communities they serve--by lowering wages and benefits.

By offering consumers familiar products and services, stores such as Top Valu, Superior and Northgate have thrived in largely immigrant neighborhoods where larger chain markets have faltered. Nearly all of those markets are nonunion, whereas virtually all the major chains such as Ralphs, Vons and Lucky are union.

Although the hearing was supposed to address all nonunion supermarket jobs, the testimony returned time and again to Gigante, a Mexico-based chain that recently opened a store in Pico Rivera and has announced plans for 21 more Southern California outlets.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which is rapidly losing its share of supermarket workers in Southern California, sees Gigante as a major threat and has staged numerous protests and community meetings about it.

“Gigante has plenty of company, but it is one of the worst,” said Joe Barragan, president of UFCW Local 1428, listing several wage and hour violations alleged by former employees. “It is profiting from the sale of goods to the same ethnic group it is abusing as workers.”

Barragan said Gigante wages are low--for clerks, $6.25 to $9, compared with $10 to $16.70 at union markets; for meat cutters, $10 to $13.50, compared with $11.69 to $17.98 at union markets. He said health insurance is available to only a few workers and that retirement benefits are about one-fifth of those offered to union employees.

Gigante officials declined to address the hearing, saying they had insufficient notice. They could not be reached for comment.

Steven Soto, president of the Mexican American Grocers Assn., which represents Gigante and other “Mexican style” markets, defended the markets, saying they serve consumers and provide jobs in communities that have been abandoned by major U.S. chains.

“You have to look at the total picture,” said Soto, who also declined to attend the hearing. “We do hire from within the community. We invest through churches and schools and youth programs. We have become the economic stabilizer in these communities. We’re not replacing those [union] stores because we’re able to compete on wages. We’re replacing them because they left.”

The six Assembly members present--all Democrats--appeared to strongly support the union’s case, but it was unclear what action they could take to reverse the trend. UFCW officials said they will provide written recommendations soon, but they declined to elaborate. Several, however, mentioned that the state could deny participation in food stamps or other public programs to the markets if they are found to be violating state wage and hour laws.

“No one is saying the state can force an employer to have a union,” said Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, who asked the Labor Committee to have Tuesday’s hearing and who has strong union backing, “but when a new market comes in and pays 30% to 40% less in wages than a union supermarket, when it offers benefits that can barely be called benefits at all, that can cause a deteriorating way of life in a community. This issue goes goes to the heart of what kind of city, what kind of state, we want to live in.”