Clerks
strike after negotiations fail
Rachelle Youngman/On-line Forty-Niner
LOS
ANGELES (AP) -- Three major supermarket
chains said Sunday they plan to hire temporary
workers to keep hundreds of stores open
as grocery clerks in Southern California
began a strike.
Clerks
at Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.'s Vons
and Albertsons grocery stores went on strike
late Saturday after negotiations between
union representatives and store officials
broke off, with health care coverage a key
sticking point.
The
companies operate about 900 stores from
San Diego to Santa Barbara and control 60
percent of the Southern California market.
Officials
with the United Food and Commercial Workers
union initially said strikers would only
target Vons and urged the companies not
to lock out workers from the other stores.
The
supermarkets, however, said a strike against
one company would be considered a strike
against all three. In a joint statement,
they said Albertsons and Ralphs would lock
out employees during the dispute.
Plans
were in the works to ''ensure that stores
remain open and staffed,'' the statement
said. Sandra Calderon, a spokeswoman for
Vons, said those plans include using temporary
workers.
Many
of the union's 70,000 clerks began picketing
outside Vons markets after last-minute talks
involving a federal mediator broke down.
The
chains want workers to pay more for health
benefits, citing a sluggish economy, rising
health care costs and increased competition
from nonunion rivals such as Wal-Mart Stores
Inc.
Vons
president Tom Keller said the proposal does
not call for wage reductions and asks employees
to pay $5 a week for individual health care
coverage and $10 to $15 a week for an entire
family.
The
union called on Southern Californians to
honor picket lines and shop elsewhere. Under
their contract, warehouse employees and
truck drivers can also choose not to cross
picket lines, said Paul Kenny, president
of Teamsters Local Union No. 630.
Grocery
clerks work a minimum of 24 hours a week,
with 70 percent working part-time. They
earn, on average, about $15 an hour, said
Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770
in Los Angeles and one of the negotiators.
The
union wants the companies to maintain health
care plans and provide raises of 50 cents
an hour the first year and 45 cents an hour
the following two years, Icaza said.
The
last time the grocery workers went on strike
was 1978, with the walkout lasting less
than a week.
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