Bay Area Grocery Chains Refuse to Extend Labor Pact
Increasing the likelihood of a grocery strike in Northern California, major supermarket chains said they would refuse to extend a contract with Bay Area workers beyond last night.
Negotiations began last year with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, and the supermarkets have extended the accord twice since it originally expired Sept. 11. On Friday, the companies declined to do so again.
“We’ve been at this for four months now,” said Brian Dowling, a spokesman for Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc. “It is time to move this along.”
Union leaders characterized the supermarkets’ stance as unnecessary.
“We’re not sure why they wanted to create this crisis -- but if they want one, we’re going to give them one,” said Ron Lind, president of UFCW Local 428 in San Jose.
Labor leaders said Friday that they would give the grocery chains -- Safeway, Kroger Co.’s Ralphs stores and Bay Area units of Albertsons Inc. -- until Jan. 24 to reach a deal.
After that, they plan to step up union activity, including possibly leading a boycott of the supermarkets.
“You’re going to see a major escalation,” Lind vowed.
Negotiations with the grocery chains were going “poorly,” Lind added. Dowling said he couldn’t characterize the discussions.
Further talks were scheduled for today. About 20,000 of the union’s rank and file are covered by the contracts.
The ratcheting up of tensions comes less than a month after the supermarkets reached agreement with the UFCW on a contract covering 8,900 employees in a region that stretches from the Oregon border down through the Sacramento Valley and as far south as Modesto. Notably, this accord didn’t include a “two-tier” wage and benefits system under which new hires would receive far less than veteran workers.
Some had hoped that this contract would become a blueprint for the Bay Area negotiations. But so far at least, that hasn’t happened.
Under the current proposal from the supermarket chains, new hires would reach the top of the pay scale in five to 10 years, Lind said. That compares with one to two years under the current pact.
The supermarkets are also seeking to reduce health coverage for veteran employees.
The proposal is similar to one that the UFCW swallowed last year after a bitter 4 1/2 -month strike and lockout involving 59,000 grocery workers in Southern and Central California. Both sides are still feeling the repercussions.
In the last two years, Safeway has negotiated deals with UFCW workers in Seattle, Washington and Phoenix without a strike.
