Thousands of Central and Southern California grocery workers have voted to authorize their union to call a strike against several major supermarket chains as contract negotiations resume this week.
Some 47,000 workers from hundreds of Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions voted from last week and the results were announced on Sunday.
The possible exit would involve grocery workers, butchers, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians represented by seven locations of the International Union of Food and Trade Workers.
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No strike was set immediately. The union said talks would resume on Wednesday and that if negotiations broke down, it would decide what steps to take next.
Negotiations with Ralphs, owned by Kroger, and Albertsons, owner of the Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions stores, ended without an agreement before the last three-year contracts expired on March 6.
“Surprisingly low” salary increase.
The union said the next day the companies’ wage proposal was a 60-cent increase that was “surprisingly low” and well below the cost-of-living needs of workers. Employees are asking for a $ 5 per hour increase, among other proposals.
“Both companies have refused to agree to expand in-store safety committees and have yet to negotiate significant health and welfare benefits,” a United Food and Commercial Workers statement said.
The union said that during the last day of negotiations it emphasized the essential role that food workers played during the coronavirus pandemic.
The union said board member Erlene Molina, a Ralphs employee, told business negotiators: “We saw people acting like the world was over, but we couldn’t stay home. “We knew we had an obligation to our community, so we showed up every day.”
“The outcome of the strike authorization vote does not change anything related to this process,” Albertsons Companies said in a statement on Sunday. “We remain committed to negotiating a contract that is fair to all parties, including our employees, and we will continue to work to achieve it.”
Ralphs did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday. The Los Angeles Times reported that a statement from Ralphs last Monday said the vote created “an unnecessary concern for our partners and communities, at a time when we should be negotiating in good faith together to find solutions and compromises.” At Ralphs, we continue to focus on establishing an agreement with the UFCW. “
The union has not yet reached agreements with other supermarket chains, such as Gelson’s, Stater Bros. Markets and Super A.
Ralphs, Vons, Pavilions and Albertsons employees in 2019 voted to authorize a strike, but eventually the contracts were reached without a way out.
A 2003-04 strike and blockade put about 70,000 Southern California grocery workers on pickets for more than four months.
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