Grocery Workers Have Community Support

With a grocery strike averted for the moment, Loma Linda and Redlands residents who prefer to do their shopping at the local Ralphs or Vons can rest assured that the stores will remain open.

But shoppers at the nearest Vons made it clear that, should a strike take place, they will not cross the picket line.

On Monday, negotiators for the union representing Southland grocery workers reached a tentative contract agreement with the owners of Ralphs, Albertsons and Vons/Pavilions. The proposal was hammered out after all night negotiations and will be presented to union members later this week for ratification, according to officials.

“I’m glad that they averted the strike because we’re a union family,” said Eric Holman, 35, of Redlands. He made a quick shopping trip to the Vons store on Monday. “We don’t cross strike lines. We do alter our shopping habits when there’s a strike.”

Health care was the major issue at the negotiating table, union officials said. Early on, store representatives said their offer would require workers to pay about $36 per month for individual health insurance, or $92 per month for family coverage. But union officials said the companies were not increasing their contributions to the health care fund, insisting the plan would be bankrupt in about 16 months.

“We have attained our most important goal, which was continuing to provide comprehensive health care to the members and their families,” union negotiators said through a statement “The grocery workers of Southern California stood together, strong and united, throughout this long and difficult process. They refused to accept anything less than a contract that protects their wages, benefits and working conditions. We are proud of them.''

Unions not only help union families, they help bring or help keep up the communities wages Holman said.

“I can understand,” said Connie Herrera, 59, of Redlands, who works with the Redlands Unified School District. “I see the (grocer’s union’s) point. We’re all just to the point where we haven’t had raises ... we have not had raises or anything like that and our health (insurance) keeps going up and yet we don’t see any more money.”

On the other hand, with so many people out of work, Herrera held out hope that this deal would be a good fit so they could have the stores remain open without any work stoppages.

“I want to see them keep their jobs and keep our store open and available for all of us,” she said.

And had there been or should there be a strike, she would not have crossed, she said.

Officials from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union 1167 -- which covers workers from the Inland region, which includes Loma Linda and Redlands -- said 62,000 Southern California grocery workers were poised to walk off the job. UFCW negotiators gave a 72-hour strike notice on Thursday. As the deadline loomed on Sunday night, the negotiators urged grocery workers to stay on the job until they were called out.

Details of the tentative agreement were not immediately released, but an update posted for members on the union's website said the proposal “protects your health care.” The workers' contract expired in March, but employees have continued working under the terms of the previous pact.

Officials with the three grocery chains issued a joint statement saying the tentative deal "continues to preserve good wages, secure pensions and access to quality, affordable health care -- while allowing us to be competitive in the marketplace.

“We appreciate the hard work, support and patience that many different people have shown during the past eight months, and particularly the past few weeks,” the statement said.