Supermarket Union, Grocers to Resume Contract Talks
Union and grocery negotiators are scheduled to meet Wednesday, four months after the start of California’s supermarket strike and lockout, to resume formal contract negotiations, the mediator brokering the talks said Monday.
“Based on my discussions with the parties, I believe we’ve reached a point where there is some potential for progress on the key issues” of wages and healthcare benefits, Peter J. Hurtgen, head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said in a statement.
The Times reported Friday that new negotiations were expected this week, the first formal talks between the United Food and Commercial Workers union and the stores -- Kroger Co.’s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.’s Vons and Pavilions, and Albertsons Inc. -- in nearly two months.
At their last meeting, the UFCW made a contract proposal that it said contained major concessions, but the offer was quickly rejected by the grocers. Last week, the chains also rejected the union’s call to have the dispute settled by binding arbitration.
The UFCW struck Safeway on Oct. 11. The other chains locked out their union workers the next day. About 70,000 workers are idled at 852 supermarkets in Southern and Central California. It is already the longest grocery strike in the UFCW’s history.
-- James F. Peltz
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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)
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