LOS ANGELES — Negotiators for workers at Southern California’s largest grocery chains reached a deal Monday to avoid a repeat of a four-month strike eight years ago that cost the industry $2 billion and created havoc for shoppers.
Both sides worked through a deadline Sunday, when more than 60,000 workers could have walked off the job, and bargained through the night to reach the tentative pact addressing health benefits.
The deal likely came as a relief to many shoppers. Supermarket executives had planned to close hundreds of stores if there had been a strike.
“The grocery workers of Southern California stood together, strong and united, throughout this long and difficult process,” locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers unions said in a news release. “They refused to accept anything less than a contract that protects their wages, benefits and working conditions.” Members were set to vote on the deal Saturday. The union said details of the terms won’t be publicly released until the vote is taken.
Some 62,000 grocery employees have been working without a contract since March while discussions continued with Vons; Ralphs, a subsidiary of Kings Soopers parent Kroger; and Albertsons.
The three companies released a joint statement lauding the deal, which they said “continues to preserve good wages, secure pensions and access to quality, affordable health care — while allowing us to be competitive in the marketplace.” Rick Hernandez, a meat clerk at an Albertson’s in the seaside community of Marina del Rey, said the last walkout in 2003 was a strain for him and his family and he was glad not to have to go through it again.
“Things are tough right now,” he said. “Nobody needed this strike.”
