July 23, 2007

Grocery workers enthused about labor deal

By Richard Verrier and Jerry Hirsch
LA Times

LOS ANGELES -- Axcel Flores was upbeat Sunday as he joined thousands of co-workers from Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons supermarkets in voting on a labor contract that appeared headed for approval.

"I'm very happy," said Flores, a supervisor at the Vons in Studio City, where he has worked for 12 years. "We got a pay raise, we got to keep our benefits and we don't have to go on strike."

"You can't ask for anything else," he said. Clutching his 9-month-old son, Miguel, in one hand and a crumpled copy of the union agreement in the other, he cast his vote in Burbank -- one of 25 regional voting spots.

That sentiment seemed widely shared among Flores' colleagues as grocery workers across Southern California on Saturday and Sunday voted -- many of them enthusiastically -- on an agreement that ended protracted contract talks with the region's largest supermarket chains.

The four-year contract would give workers their first scheduled raises since 2002.

Although final results were still being tallied late Sunday night, the contract covering members of the United Food and Commercial Workers was expected to be ratified by an overwhelming margin, union officials said.

"I expect a better than 90 percent acceptance," said Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles. "I'm ecstatic."

Although the chains declined to comment on the contract until after ballots were counted, Safeway Chief Executive Steve Burd mentioned the deal during a conference call with investors late last week.

"It's a good result for us. It's a good result for the employees, and it was, it was a long negotiation and in any good negotiation, you know, both parties have to feel like they did, they did well," he said.

The agreement covers 65,000 union members who work at 785 Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons stores from San Diego to Bakersfield.The tentative agreement reached Tuesday makes up some of the ground the UFCW lost in a strike and lockout 3 1/2 years ago. It also appeared to have prevented a repeat of the 141-day work stoppage that paralyzed grocery shopping in 2003-4.

Some were happy to vote for any contract that would avoid another strike. Others welcomed the immediate pay bump and the shortened wait time to qualify for health insurance.

"I voted for it hands down," said Armando Avila, a frozen foods clerk at a Vons in Mission Hills, as he left the voting station at Pickwick Gardens Conference Center. "On our last contract we got beat up pretty bad, and now we're getting some of that back."

In the deal, the union and negotiators from the big chains agreed to shorten to six months the waiting period for health insurance for newer workers and their children. New hires previously had to wait 12 months for to secure insurance for themselves and 30 months for their children. Spouses had their wait time reduced from 30 to 24 months.

That was welcome news to Martha Garcia, who has worked two years in the deli department at a Vons in Pasadena, where she earns $9.35 an hour. "I'm happy, because now I can provide health insurance for my husband and two girls," she said.

The contract includes across-the-board wage increases that are retroactive to March 7 and that take effect immediately. Experienced food clerks and meat cutters, for example, will receive an additional $1.65 an hour over four years.

Additionally, the contract puts all employees on the same wage progression schedule, depending on hours worked and job classification.

The new contract greatly improves the situation of about 33,000 "second-tier" employees who were hired after the labor dispute of 2003-04 and receive lower wages and benefits than veteran store employees. Currently, those employees started at $7.55 to $11.05 an hour, with their wages topping out at about $1 to $3 less per hour than those of the veteran workers. Veteran workers' wages topped out between $12.17 and $17.90 an hour.

Under the proposed contract, the second-tier workers would be eligible to reach the same top pay scale as their veteran counterparts over 7 1/2 years or less, depending on their job classification.

Eliminating the dual system was a major selling point for union members like Warren Duplessis, supervisor at Vons store in Sylmar who voted for the contract.

"It was causing a lot of division between new hires and other workers," said Duplessis, a 17-year veteran of the grocery business. "It really hurt morale."

Bargainers reached the contract after nearly seven months of negotiations during which the union threatened to strike multiple times. Many workers expressed relief that they wouldn't face another strike like the last one, which cost workers their homes, their marriages.

Flores, the Vons supervisor who voted Sunday with son in tow, said he was happy at the prospect of an immediate bump of 50 cents an hour.

"(That) may not sound like much, but when you're trying to raise a family in L.A. it makes a difference," he said. "It will help with the cost of baby food and diapers."