CalPERS Chides Grocers’ Actions
CalPERS, responding to a union plea for help in the Southern California supermarket strike and lockout, Wednesday urged the three grocery chains involved to resolve the strike “fairly and expeditiously.”
Rob Feckner, investment committee chairman of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, made the request in letters to the chief executives of Kroger Co., the parent of Ralphs; Safeway Inc., the owner of Vons and Pavilions; and Albertsons Inc.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union struck Vons and Pavilions on Oct. 11 in a contract dispute. Ralphs and Albertsons, which are bargaining jointly with Safeway, locked out their workers the next day. The dispute has idled 70,000 workers in Southern and Central California.
Last month, UFCW officials went to CalPERS, asking if there was anything the largest U.S. public pension fund could do to help resolve the conflict, fund spokesman Brad Pacheco said.
CalPERS, with $152 billion in assets, represents more than 1.4 million public workers and owns stock of each of the three chains. It weighed the union’s request on the basis of whether the labor dispute was affecting its investments, Pacheco said.
In his letters, Feckner chided the supermarkets for having a “blatant disregard for quality of life issues for your long-term employees,” and said the stores’ posture “is having a significant impact on our investment in your corporation.”
Feckner said CalPERS owns $71.3 million of stock in Kroger, $31.3 million in Albertsons and $77.2 million in Safeway. Stock prices for Kroger and Safeway have fallen since the strike began, while Albertsons stock is little changed.
UFCW spokesman Greg Denier welcomed CalPERS’ effort, saying, “We hope it encourages other investors to do the same.” Albertsons spokeswoman Stacia Levenfeld declined to comment.
CalPERS’ move was criticized by Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a watchdog group in Los Angeles. Because CalPERS President Sean Harrigan is also an executive of the UFCW, the letters are an “ethical conflict of interest,” he told Reuters.
“I don’t have a problem with CalPERS doing this, but Harrigan should be disqualifying himself,” Stern said.
But CalPERS spokeswoman Pat Macht noted that it was Feckner who directed CalPERS’ staff to recommend whether the fund should take any action in the supermarket dispute.
--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE ---
On February 12, 2004 the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which had stated repeatedly that 70,000 workers were involved in the supermarket labor dispute in Central and Southern California, said that the number of people on strike or locked out was actually 59,000. A union spokeswoman, Barbara Maynard, said that 70,000 UFCW members were, in fact, covered by the labor contract with supermarkets that expired last year. But 11,000 of them worked for Stater Bros. Holdings Inc., Arden Group Inc.’s Gelson’s and other regional grocery companies and were still on the job. (See: “UFCW Revises Number of Workers in Labor Dispute,” Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2004, Business C-11)
--- END NOTE ---
