The Associated Press September 19, 2008
A federal grand jury indicted eight former Ralphs supermarket managers for allegedly rehiring hundreds of locked-out employees during a 2003 labor dispute, the U.S. attorney's office said Friday.
A 23-count indictment handed up Thursday contends that five former managers conspired to rehire workers under false identities and false Social Security numbers so they could continue staffing stores during the lockout.
The indictment claims they hid the illegal activities from labor unions, the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration, and submitted phony reports to funds that provided pension and health benefits for grocery workers.
The five could each face up to 30 years in prison if convicted. They were scheduled for arraignment next month.
Separate indictments accused three other ex-managers of lying to investigators about rehiring locked-out workers.
A call seeking comment from Kroger Co., the corporate parent of Ralphs, was not immediately returned.
Ralphs pleaded guilty two years ago to five felony counts of conspiracy, submitting false tax information and other crimes in connection with the case. It later paid a $70 million fine.
The lockout that ended in 2004 involved 19,000 Ralphs clerks and meat cutters at Southern California stores. It lasted four months and was the longest and largest labor dispute involving the grocery industry in U.S. history.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D93A0HK00.htm
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