Union leaders are confident that thousands of workers at three large Southern California supermarket chains will ratify a new contract that would avert a strike.

Workers at Supervalu Inc.'s Albertsons, Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, and Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Pavilions voted Sunday on the deal reached last week.

Leaders of local unions covered by the contract have recommended that their 63,000 members approve the pact. Results were expected to be announced today.

The proposed deal reached Tuesday between the union and supermarket chains shortens to six months, from as long as 30 months, the waiting period for health insurance for new hires and their children, said Rick Icaza, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770 in Los Angeles.

Most workers also would receive a $1.65 an hour raise over the course of the four-year contract, Icaza said.

Additionally, the proposed contract eliminates a two-tier system of employee compensation and benefits that paid new employees a maximum salary several dollars less than longtime workers, he said.

The proposed contract "includes fair wage increases and significantly improves healthcare benefits," said Mike Shimpock, spokesman for the Southern California grocery workers.

The supermarket chains said in a statement that they were pleased the contract seemed headed for ratification.

Some 4,000 members represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, Local 1036, work in Ventura County, said George L. Hartwell, Local 1036's president.

Local 1036 workers stopped by the union's headquarters in Camarillo on Sunday to vote on the new contract.

Jennifer Nichols, who works at an Albertsons in Thousand Oaks, voted not to ratify the new contract, saying she was concerned that it did not address the problem of first-tier employees such as herself being paid second-tier wages.

Nichols, 34, said she's had to wait longer to get a pay raise under the union's 2004 contract. When she gets one, it's less than what it would otherwise be, she said.

"I'm upset about this," Nichols, who earns $15.10 an hour, said as she sat inside the union's headquarters Sunday.

But Nichols later changed her mind and recast her vote, voting to ratify the contract, after speaking with Hartwell.

While the new contract isn't perfect, Hartwell said it's a very good one.

"We got back 90 percent of what we'd lost," Hartwell said, referring to the deal struck in 2004 that created the two-tiered wage and benefit system.

Negotiations began in November, and the union began taking steps toward a strike in recent weeks.

But neither side wanted a repeat of the 141-day strike-lockout that preceded their previous contract agreement in 2004. In that dispute, union leaders ordered a strike against Vons and Pavilions. Albertsons and Ralphs responded by locking out their employees. In all, about 59,000 workers were idled at 859 stores, and grocers lost more than $2 billion by some estimates.

During that strike, Local 1036 took out a loan for more than $1 million on its Camarillo property to help provide its members with money, Hartwell said.

 

— Staff writer John Scheibe contributed to this report