Approximately 18,000 striking grocery workers stopped picketing at 429 Southern California Ralphs stores on Friday, union officials announced in five simultaneous press conferences.
Almost four weeks after the labor dispute began, the United Food and Commercial Workers union has decided to concentrate its protest against Albertsons and Vons, which the union says have been the most uncompromising in negotiations.
“”Ralphs, from our standpoint, has not taken a hard line in the negotiations, and if we were sitting down with Ralphs individually, and they weren’t part of this pact, then in my opinion we wouldn’t have a strike,”” said Rick Icaza, president of Los Angeles-based Local 770, the largest of the seven locals involved.
Though he encouraged customers to continue to avoid all three chains in negotiations, Icaza explained that the union hoped to bring relief to consumers overwhelmed by raging wildfires and a concurrent transportation strike in Los Angeles.
“”In light of the challenges, especially the devastating fires in Southern California, we would like to do everything to make lives easier for consumers,”” he said. “”We really want to thank the consumers for respecting our picket lines. We want to give them an alternative.””
At the same time, union officials admitted that the move represented a divisive strategy shift, meant to create a rift between the three companies that said they would negotiate as a single bargaining unit.
“”The union’s strategy to divide the companies will fail. The employers remain united in our belief that we have made a very good contract offer,”” the three grocers stated in an Oct. 31 joint press release. “”The companies and the union agreed at the beginning of negotiations that a strike against one is a strike against all. The union’s action today changes nothing.””
The companies have seen their sales plummet by 75 percent since Oct. 11, when 70,000 union members walked off their jobs after the breakdown of contract negotiations, with Vons alone losing $150 million, Icaza said.
The original strike targeted only Vons, accusing its parent company Safeway of being the primary author of drastic benefits cuts in offered proposals and corporate mismanagement. After the initial announcement of the strike, both Albertsons and Ralphs locked out their employees, saying that a strike against one company constituted a strike against all three.
Both sides agreed that higher medical co-payments and the introduction of a monthly premium for health coverage represented the biggest obstacles in reaching a compromise on a new contract.
Labor leaders from across the country have called the dispute a battlefield for the future of health benefits for all workers and began a national “”Hold the Line for Health Care Fund”” to support striking employees. UFCW, which pays striking employees up to $300 per week, currently has enough funds to sustain the work stoppage through May, Icaza said.
In addition to bulking up lines at Vons and Albertsons stores, former Ralphs picketers will also surround warehouses of the two companies. With support of the Teamsters Union, which represents truck drivers and has honored UFCW picket lines, the move is meant to effectively shut down the distribution centers.
The grocers argued that the decision to abandon Ralphs was a defensive one.
“”By announcing it was taking down its picket lines at Ralphs stores, the United Food and Commercial Workers union acknowledged what the grocery companies already know ‹ there is weakening support from employees and customers for the strike,”” their statement said.
John Muir College senior Michelle Vavra, who has worked as a temporary replacement worker at an Albertsons in Santee, said that the store is doing better as the strike drags out.
“”We have more people coming in,”” Vavra said. “”I hear people saying they can’t keep spending the amount of money they’ve been paying at other stores.””
For Vavra, the labor dispute has literally divided her family, with her mother among the unionized striking workers and her father a non-union Albertsons manager.
“”I fully support what my mom is doing, but my dad is totally stressed out,”” she said, explaining that though she took the job as a “”scab”” to help her dad, she has not shopped at any of the stores.
Despite the announcement, Vavra said she would continue to avoid Ralphs and the other chains involved in the walkout.
“”I won’t cross the picket lines,”” she said.
