Grocery Pact Is Put to a Vote

Grocery workers began voting Saturday on a labor pact that offered no raises but would put them back on the job after nearly five months on picket lines.

At polling places in Los Angeles and Orange counties, union members’ support for the contract appeared widespread -- if not enthusiastic.

“We don’t really have a choice. We have to go back to work,” said Larry Clow, 38, who hopes to return soon to his position as night manager of a Vons in south Orange County.

A majority vote for ratification would end the strike and lockout, which began Oct. 11, idling 59,000 workers at 852 stores in Central and Southern California. The proposed contract was drafted by negotiators for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and Albertsons Inc.; Kroger Co., which owns Ralphs; and Safeway Inc., the parent of Vons and Pavilions.

Union leaders urged members to approve the contract. The thousands who voted Saturday received fact sheets and summaries explaining the dozens of provisions in the pact.

Overall, it would lower the supermarkets’ labor costs, most notably by instituting a two-tier system in which new hires would receive substantially less in wages and benefits than veteran workers. The UFCW initially opposed the system but conceded when the supermarkets wouldn’t budge.

Veterans covered under the last contract, which expired Oct. 6, wouldn’t get raises and the companies’ contributions toward their healthcare coverage would be capped at $4.60 an hour in the third year of the contract, according to a copy of the proposed changes obtained by The Times.

Current workers wouldn’t have to pitch in for healthcare coverage in the first two years, and perhaps not the third year if the healthcare contributions from the store and reserves are sufficient to cover the costs. If they do have to contribute in the final year, the cost would be an estimated $5 a week for a single worker and $15 a week for a family.

“I’m really disappointed in the terms,” said Lori Friend, a 45-year-old single mother who has worked for Ralphs for 27 years. “We got a reduced pension plan, no raises and less benefits.”

She said she had voted “no” at a polling place in Anaheim but acknowledged she was in the minority. “We fought as long as we could,” Friend said.

Under the proposed contract, veterans would receive two lump-sum payments totaling 60 cents an hour for each hour they had logged in the 12 months before the last contract’s expiration. For the average worker, that would total about $1,000.

Some said that wasn’t fair. “Basically, for all those months that we were out there on strike, we should’ve got a better deal,” said Armando Montes, 42, who was voting in Hollywood.

Montes’ wife was on the picket lines with him, making it especially tough on them at a time when they have a 19-year-old daughter in college.

“They should have got more for us, but they are saying this is the best they can do,” Montes said. “They told us you can go out for another four months and the employers are not going to move. This is not what we hoped.”

Also voting in Hollywood was Ken Oxford, a 20-year veteran union employee at an Alhambra Ralphs. He said he would be glad to go back to work but was unhappy with the contract -- and would be counting the days until he could retire.

In Van Nuys, Ron Inouye and others waited in line for an hour or more to cast ballots. Inouye said he wanted to vote against the contract but had been told by union officials that “ ‘if we vote it down, it will only get worse.’ What kind of choice is that?”

Concluded Sheryl Speer, a general merchandise clerk at a Vons in Agoura Hills who halfheartedly voted for ratification: “The companies won.”

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Times Staff Writer James F. Peltz contributed to this report.