Union says Albertsons violated labor law

In a filing with the National Labor Relations Board, the Southern California grocery workers union alleged that the Albertsons supermarket chain violated federal labor law in the days leading up to a vote by workers Sunday that gave union leaders the power to call a strike.

A three-year contract for workers at three major Southland grocery chains is set to expire April 9 after two extensions in the last month.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union said Albertsons management forced employees to watch anti-union videos urging a “no” vote on a strike, sent home union activists to prevent them from speaking with fellow workers, kept records of employee preferences on the strike vote and directly queried workers on their vote intentions. The union said those were violations of the National Labor Relations Act.

Albertsons said the charges had no “factual or legal merit.”

Jerry Hirsch