Business & Tech
Grocery Workers Vote on New Contract
Friday's vote will accept or reject an agreement reached Tuesday with the Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons grocery chains for better wages and health benefits for the workers.
Grocery workers allied with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union began voting Friday across Southern California on a new three-year contract with three major grocery chains—Ralphs, Vons/Pavilions and Albertsons—where a potentially disastrous employees’ strike was averted at the eleventh hour on Sunday night.
The UFCW’s Local 770 chapter invited its 22,000 members from the grocery industry to learn more about and vote on the new contract—which includes modest wage increases and improved health benefits—at the Pickwick Gardens Conference Center in Burbank.
Tatanya Bryant, an Albertsons deli service clerk in Arcadia for the past four years, accepted the new agreement, which was negotiated Tuesday, after she took part in a group session led by a union representative, in which the terms of the new contract were laid out.
Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.
'At Least a Couple of Dollars More'
"I would have liked to have seen at least a couple of dollars more,” Bryant said, referring to the moderate increase in minimum wages she can now expect. Nonetheless, she said she supports the protection of healthcare benefits in the new agreement, pointing out that "we've defeated quite a bit of what we fought against."
Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.
The UFCW’s eight local chapters throughout Southern California, which represent 62,000 grocery workers, successfully negotiated better wages and better health benefits for the workers during an eight-week standoff with the grocery chains.
The labor union rejected a plan by the grocery chains to pay for a workers’ healthcare fund through higher deductions from their salaries. In the end, the UCFW and the grocery companies agreed to limit workers’ premium and co-pay hikes and to forgo upfront deductibles.
Instead, the companies agreed to focus on cost savings and health education plans for the workers, in addition to small quality-of-work issues such as funeral leave for clerks’ helpers and minimum time off between shifts and holiday week work.
'Times Have Changed in the Industry'
Tom Hancock, a 16-year veteran at the Pavilions at Melrose and Vine in Hollywood, has seen quite a bit of change in the grocery industry since he started working 30 years ago as a teenager at a local grocery store on the Westside.
"The ’80s were a breeze," but things went downhill from there for employees when large national grocery conglomerates bought up regional chains, he reminisced. "Regional chains treated us as people and our contracts reflected that.”
But “times have changed in the industry," Hancock said, adding that although he’s a longtime union member, “for the first time in 30 years I voted ‘yes’” on the union-negotiated contract.
Grateful for Customers' Support
Like many other grocery workers gathered in Burbank Friday, Hancock is grateful for the support his customers showed him during the union negotiations with the grocery chains. "I really love the Pavilions’ customers at Melrose and Vine,” he said. “They make it not a drag to show up for work."
Hancock said he’s proud that more than 90 percent of UFCW members in Southern California approved a potential strike, demonstrating that the union was ready to fight for their rights.
Voting will continue until 7 p.m. Friday at the Burbank venue—and will be held elsewhere on Saturday as well. A simple majority of votes is needed for the approval of the new three-year agreement.