By Peter Surowski Valley News 3/16/2007 4:58:57 PM
Everyone in Southern California was affected by the grocery strike last year. A friend or a family member, along with thousands of other workers, went on strike for four-and-a-half months. They missed out on their wages and cost their companies around $2 billion. At the end of the strike, both the chairmen of the grocery corporations and their employees felt robbed.
Now those same grocery workers and the companies that employ them are back at the negotiating table. Their contract, the source of their grievances, expired Monday, March 5.
The United Food and Commercial Workers and the biggest grocery chains - Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons - have agreed to a two-week extension. They will use this time to negotiate the new contract.
Adena Tessler, a spokesperson for Safeway, the parent company of Vons, sees no immediate end to the negotiations. "They're negotiating 21 different contracts through 21 different negotiations," she said. "I have no idea how close to an agreement they are." The current contract works on a "two-tier" system, treating longtime employees with preference. The companies pay new employees less and give them health benefits after a longer time. New employees also pay a bigger share for their medical coverage.
Sam, a Vons employee in Menifee, lost much of her medical coverage and feels for the new employees who get less money for the same work. "I used to be proud of my company and proud of the job I did," she said. "Now I just do a job and collect my check."
Tessler feels her company is justified and argues that other companies have been doing the same thing for years. "The uniqueness was that we didn't have the two-tier system prior to 2004," she said. "This situation allows them to keep their benefits."
Workers fall into two groups: the new workers, who want better medical coverage, and the older workers, who want higher wages. It has been almost six years since their last raise and the cost of living is rising.
Company officials have cited the need to stay competitive as the main reason for the diminished wages. The growth of non-union grocery stores, such as Wal-mart and Winco, are straining their business, they said. Tesco, a non-union east-coast grocery giant, recently invested $2 billion to open stores on the west coast.
"There is intense competition," said Tessler. The price of healthcare is "skyrocketing," straining the companies further, she said.
Stater Bros., a smaller, regional chain of grocery stores based in Los Angeles, has eliminated the two-tier system. Many workers look to Stater Bros. as proof that union stores can stay competitive with their non-union counterparts. "Jack Brown [head of Stater Bros.] is bound by the same contract deal and he keeps prices low," said Sam, an active union member.
Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons represent more than 50 percent of the grocery business in Southern California. United Food and Commercial Workers union represents more than 65,000 working at those stores.
In the meantime, Vons has declared the week of Wednesday, March 28, Employee Appreciation Week. "It's almost like they want to put blinders on us so we won't notice what's going on," Sam said.
http://www.temeculavalleynews.com/story.asp?story_ID=21408
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