Grocery Workers reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with Kroger Company and Cerberus Capital, the owners of Ralphs and Vons/Albertsons, respectively. The largest union representing Southern California workers, UFCW Local 770, said an agreement for union-represented pharmacists had not yet been reached but meat cutters and clerks are expected to vote on whether the approve the deal Monday.
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The union’s rank-and-file members will vote to accept or reject the deal on Monday, with voting going on from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.at several local offices around the Southland. Albertsons, parent of Albertsons and Vons stores, and Kroger, parent of the Ralphs chain, had said they would their close stores if members followed through on the walkout. That was the deadline set for reaching an agreement when workers voted in June to authorize a strike. Though exact details of the agreement have not been made public, talks had reportedly deadlocked over increased worker health care costs, proposed cuts to employer pension contributions and raising the retirement age from 60 to 65.
“We remain committed to finding solutions that will be good for our associates and keep Ralphs competitive in the market”, she wrote in an emailed statement. “This would not have been possible without the strength and solidarity of all the 50,000 grocery workers throughout Central and Southern California, the cooperation of the seven California UFCW locals and the UFCW International Union”.
The three-year deal would cover about 350 stores.
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Albertsons and Ralphs were part of a historically long 141-day strike in 2003-2004 that some experts say helped change the shopping habits of Southern California consumers.
