Grocery employees return to their posts

Alicia Robinson

Familiar faces will be back behind the bakery, meat counters and cash

registers at your local Albertsons today and Ralphs on Wednesday

following union approval of a new contract this weekend. Vons

employees expect to be back at work on Friday.

While not everyone is satisfied with the contract, workers and

shoppers alike were happy to see the end of nearly five months of

picketing.

“It was a long five months,” said Tamara Davis, a checker at the

Balboa Boulevard Albertsons. “I’m very grateful to be going back to

work.”

A contract dispute over employee health care costs, the wage

structure for new employees and other issues led to a strike by

United Food and Commercial Workers union members at Vons stores in

October. Ralphs and Albertsons, which were bargaining jointly with

Vons, locked out union members in response.

After talks broke down several times, including long lulls with no

talks, a federal mediator was brought in and a contract agreement was

finally reached late Thursday, ending the 20-week strike and lockout.

Union members voted Saturday and Sunday on the contract.

Under the new contract, employee health care will be paid for by

the employers for the next two years, but in the third year employees

could pay up to $5 a week for their health care or $15 a week for

family coverage, according to a fact sheet the union provided to

workers. The grocery companies had proposed employee premiums that

would reach $95 a week by the third year of the contract.

A two-tier system that brings new hires in with lower wages and

with fewer benefits than current employees, a provision the unions

fought, also is in the contract.

“I’m just happy to go back to work,” said Holly Swedelson, a

checker at the Harbor Boulevard Albertsons who expected to return to

work today.

“I think we rushed to go on strike,” she said. “I feel like

talking could have gone on while we were still working.”

Davis was also excited to go back to work today but had

reservations about the new contract.

“I know our contract has taken away some things,” she said. “We

actually went back with less ... we were lucky to hang on to our

benefits.”

Shoppers were relieved that the strike and lockout have come to an

end.

“I think it’s wonderful that they came to a conclusion on this,”

said Susan Nelson, who was buying groceries at Vons on 17th Street

Monday.

The dispute didn’t affect her shopping much, she said, because she

visits a variety of stores. But she noticed the selection at stores

involved in the strike and lockout wasn’t what it had been, she said.

“I’m glad it’s over,” said Stan Smith, a shopper at Ralphs down

the street from Vons. “I feel sorry for the workers.”

Workers have looked forward to seeing their longtime customers,

said Davis. She expects they will return now that the picket lines

are gone.

Mike Walsh, a temporary clerk at the Harbor Boulevard Albertsons,

is waiting for the return of customers and locked out workers to find

out if he’ll keep his job.

Swedelson said the outcome of this labor dispute will send a

message to other unions, and it’s not a hopeful one.

“They better think twice before they do anything because the same

thing could happen to them,” she said.