UFCW

One of the main goals of the grocery workers for the contract negotiations was the elimination of a two-tier wage system. They argued that it was bad for business and employees. Turns out that the big chains agreed and it should send a cautionary message to other employers: "two-tier pay scales are trouble." The last contract overwhelmingly benefited the big chains, but it turns out that what they wanted caused more trouble than it was worth. The LAT does a good job examining how the chains came to see the workers side of things on the issue and how the two sides worked together on other issues like health care.

Almost from the day the last contract kicked in, the two-tier system irritated workers and frustrated mid-level managers in the stores. It was a priority for union leaders to end the system with the new contract.

Although such a system looks like a great way to cut expenses without slashing into the benefits and pay of existing workers, the typical result is labor disharmony, Jacobs said.

New employees resent getting paid less for doing the same tasks as the veterans, he said, and veteran workers get irritated at the constant turnover in the ranks of the new employees and the stress of working with untrained workers.

Jacobs studied UFCW enrollment data and found that under the two-tier contract turnover rates for workers on the jobs for less than a year soared to 52% from 29%. Overall turnover jumped to 32% from 19%, he said.

"It was a case of be careful what you wish for," said Greg Conger, president of UFCW Local 324 in Buena Park.

The turnover lead to decreased productivity and increased training/recruiting costs. It simply was not worth the initial salary cost savings. A happy worker is a productive worker.

The agreements on health care have lead some to say that it could serve as a model for other contracts across the country. One key piece was the inclusion of free or reduced-cost programs for quitting smoking, weight management and others. The goal is to reduce health care costs by creating a healthier workforce, a win for all sides.

Last night, grocery workers voted overwhelmingly to ratify the contract agreement with Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons. It is described by UFCW as an "excellent contract that will improve the lives of 70,000 grocery workers throughout Southern California. It is a four-year contract, valid through March 6, 2011.

"This contract is a huge victory for grocery workers," continued Lloyd-Jones. "From the beginning we set very clear goals that we wanted to eliminate the unfair two-tier wage structure. We wanted wage increases for grocery workers who haven't had a wage increase in five years. And, we wanted to improve the eligibility and benefits of the health care coverage that grocery workers receive. We met all of these goals and more."

Here are a few details from the contract.

• Eliminates Two-Tier Wage Structure effective 3/5/07. All employees will be on the same wage progression schedule for their classification and will be eligible to reach the same top pay scale in their classification.
• Provides Retroactive Wage Increases. Immediate wage increases for employees retroactive back to March 5, 2007.
• Wage increases annually. Over the 4 year term of contract, as an example, experienced food clerks and meat cutters will receive $1.65.
• Shortens Waiting Period for Health Care Eligibility to 6-months for new hires and dependent children. Shortens waiting period for spouses to 24 Months. All current employees who have worked for six months will be eligible for health care coverage.

Read more details here.

This is an amazing improvement from the last contract. No more two tier wages, better health benefits and wage increases. Needless to say, the workers are thrilled.

"When we learned the terms of the contract, I just can't describe the feeling of excitement and relief," said Chris Zazueta, a Ralphs employee. "From the beginning everyone described our fight as a David and Goliath story, and yesterday David won! We stood up to the employers and demanded a fair contract, and we got one. "

The grocery workers are holding up the strong community support as being crucial to the workers getting a fair contract. The over 50,000 people who signed the pledge not to shop at the big three in case of a lockout or strike was described as "instrumental" to the final contract. What a wonderful victory for the workers and their families.

Sounds like a big win for the grocery workers, from this press release, but we really won't know until the details come out on Sunday after the vote. It is wonderful that there will not be a strike and it appears that they got what they wanted from the negotiations`.

Today Representatives of the Grocery Workers Union and the Management of Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons reached a tentative contract agreement. Details of the agreement are not being released until grocery workers vote to ratify the deal Sunday, July 22nd. All seven locals covered by the contract will recommend ratification to their members.

Negotiators have continued talking under contract extensions since the original contract expired on March 5th. The successful negotiations were mediated by Deputy Director Scott Beckenbaugh and Commissioner Joe Mansolillo of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

"We are pleased to be able to recommend a contract to our members," said Mike Shimpock, spokesperson for the Southern California Grocery Workers. "While we cannot go into specific detail until our members have a chance to see and vote on it, we can say that it includes fair wage increases and significantly improves health care benefits. This represents not only a victory for grocery workers, but for all people working and trying to raise a family and pay their bills. This contract is a step towards the preservation of the middle class in California and the United States," he concluded.

The last we heard from the negotiations the big chains were not offering a pay increase and were calling for more health care cuts. There is no mention of unifying the worker classifications, so we don't know if the deal eliminates the two tier system. The unity is great to see, all of the chains and the leadership from all seven locals have agreed to this deal.

That was the headline of an email from the grocery workers. They are headed back to the bargaining table with the big chains on Monday, but Ralphs just announced a plan to hire replacement workers.

They also explicitly threatened their workers that if they strike they may lose their jobs or hours will be cut. Then, to top it off, they told their workers that they would be forced to pay hundreds of dollars just to keep their family's health care coverage in the event of a work stoppage.

Of course, it's no surprise that Ralphs would threaten their workers like this. After all, Ralphs is still on probation for their actions during the 2003 strike, and they were forced to pay $70 million in fines and restitution for lying to the federal government. What will stop them from doing the same again?

Man, this is not good. On top of all of this it seems like the sides are still pretty far apart on negotiations. They still are not offering a pay raise AND they want to cut wages for new grocery workers even further. Plus, they want to reduce their contributions to the worker's health care trust fund. That would put the fund at risk for bankruptcy and increase the amount workers are paying out of pocket for those employees and their families who seek care.

Support the grocery workers. Pledge not to shop at Ralphs, Vons, or Albertsons stores if they force a lockout or strike. And go check out Supermarket Swindle if you haven't already.

We have gained an amazing new partner in the fight for a fair contract for the grocery workers. Brave New Films, of "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Living" fame has created a new online campaign to help tell the story of the grocery workers and collect pledges from customers not to shop at the Vons, Raphs or Albertsons if they force a lockout or a strike. Here is the first video:

You can sign the pledge here.

This is only the first of a series of worker profiles to help tell the story of working under a two-tier wage structure, or going without health insurance, or not getting a raise for four years while the CEO's salaries rose 216%. As Robert Greenwald put it in a conference call, this is a campaign to "convince the gang of three that fairness is a value". He wants to "hold their feet to the fire until that happens."

Brave New Films is giving these loyal and hard working employees a voice, like Charles Bingham, who is featured in this first clip. Charles was born with an eye condition and he developed an infection while working at Ralphs. Unfortunately, he was hired after the the strike. Thus, despite having worked for the company for over 8 months, did not have health insurance. He ended up going to the hospital, but left with a $8,000 bill, forcing him to declare bankruptcy. His debt has now caused him to have to move out of his studio apartment and into a hotel. If he had been covered like all workers were before the strike, this never would have happened.

Then there is Javier Ybarra, who has seen the power of his pay check demising over the years and now finds it "tragic" to work beside colleagues who are earning even less than him. He works pay check to paycheck and says: "I scratch my head as I look over to my colleagues and wonder how they do it."

They now half jokingly refer to the lower tier workers as the b-team, because of their second class status. Those post strike hired workers find a hard time being motivated to work hard side-by-side with their coworkers, who are making significantly more. The b-team is now earning just a few cents over minimum wage. They could go elsewhere, but as one worker on the call put it, then somebody else would just get hired. It could be his son. Instead he said defiantly, "somebody has to stand up and say something about that." He is standing up and now has an outlet for his voice thanks to Brave New Films.

Go watch the video and send it around to your friends and family. I will be sure to post all of the new videos as the come out and track the progress of the "Supermarket Swindle" campaign.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram has a special feature each week called "Speakout" that publishes a wide variety of reader's letters on a particular topic each Sunday. This is the question this week:

Question: If grocery workers strike again, would you honor or cross their picket lines? After the last strike was settled, in 2004, did you return to the market you patronized before the strike, or did you continue shopping elsewhere?

Take five minutes and email question@presstelegram.com by 5pm on Thursday and help build public support for the workers in their fight for fair wages and health care benefits. Make sure you include your name and city.

Here are a few talking points from the grocery workers:

• Grocery workers haven't had a raise since 2002, yet Ralphs, Vons, and Albertsons made over $8 billion in profits last year while their three CEOs raked in over $27 million.
• Since 2004, the markets have stopped providing health insurance for more than half of their grocery workers. That's more than 40,000 workers and 20,000 of their children who have no access to health care coverage.
• The employers claim they can't afford to offer a fair contract, but Stater Bros. and Gelson's Markets -- two regional employers that are dwarfed in size by the national chains -- agreed to a fair contract with their workers before their contracts expired.
• This is a problem facing millions of American workers who are trying to make ends meet while corporations are making billions of dollars in profits. It's time to send a message to corporations like Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons that their workers deserve a fair wage and decent health care benefits.

Tips for writing a letter: Keep it short and sweet. Make it your own: it's much more effective if you don't copy and paste the above. Put in personal anecdotes.

Feel free to include your letter in the comments and let us know if you get yours published.

While tens of thousands of grocery workers voted to give their union authorization for a strike there are no immediate plans to do so. They are hopeful that they will head back to the bargaining table shortly, but that is up to the federal mediator. OC Register:

A federal mediator has been involved in the talks since the beginning. It's up to the mediator to reconvene the negotiations, said Greg Conger, president of UFCW Local 324 in Buena Park.

After Sunday's strike-authorization vote, "the employers know that we have that in our arsenal (and) that should be enough of an incentive for them to bargain to a conclusion," Conger said.

The strike authorization is leverage for use in the negotiations. It also shortens the timeline, encouraging a faster pace for the talks, since they can call for the workers to strike within a short period of time.

Both sides say they don't want a strike. If union leaders were to decide to call one, they would have to first give the employers 72 hours notice of their intention to terminate the current contract extension.

The contract expired in March but is being extended on a day-to-day basis.

Hopefully, the mediator will bring them back to the table and a productive negotiation will take place. It's way past time to eliminate the two-tier wage structure.

In a not unexpected move, UFCW workers overwhelmingly voted to give their union the authorization to call a strike, if negotiations fail. The vote was a landslide, with 95% voting for the authorization. The grocery workers are unified against the unfair offer by the big chains. They would much rather a fair contract be negotiated, but they are willing to strike to ensure they are able to earn a fair wage. It sounds like turnout was particularly strong. LAT:

Turnout at one location, Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, was heavy by 8:30 a.m., with the school's parking lot filled to overflowing and voters crowded into a stuffy auditorium for a pre-vote briefing by union leaders.

Of those who were polled shortly after their vote, only one said that he was financially prepared for a strike, but everyone interviewed was prepared to support a walkout if union leaders found it necessary.

It was only a few short years ago that they went through a long strike. The overwhelming vote for another potential strike underscores just how unified the UFCW members are right now. The current offer from the big chains is unacceptable.

"What I say at this point is that it is about principle," said Suzanne Demers, 44, a supervisor at Vons store 1623 in Redondo Beach, as she waited for her turn to vote.

"I am struggling already, but what have I got to lose? Customers say to me, 'Please don't go on strike.' But now that I see how I have allowed Vons to deplete me, I know this has to stop. I want to take a stand."

Demers, who makes $10.50 an hour, and her husband, Jim, have struggled to make ends meet. Jim runs a small trucking company by day and then works as late as 2 a.m. every night on a second job as a limousine driver. They share a one-bedroom Hawthorne apartment with their 18-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.

"A strike is the last thing we want. But the union started negotiating two months before the contract ended, and the employers keep dragging it out," Demers said. "We have two choices: Keep working under these horrible conditions, or we have to put our foot down."

The grocery workers have put their foot down resoundingly with this vote. Now will the big chains listen? Will they offer a fair contract? Let's hope they negotiate fairly and a strike will be avoided. But if they don't, the workers are prepared to strike.

UFCW put a deadline on negotiations today, which has come and gone without word of a contract or even a breakthrough in discussions. There is a press conference this afternoon, but what I wanted to do is show you exactly what the union has asked for and the big chains have rejected.

On Health Care:

Today, 50% of Southern California's grocery workers and 20,000 of their children don't have health care coverage since Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons have long eligibility requirements.

Southern California's grocery workers gave the employers a health care proposal that would shorten eligibility to six months for new hires, guarantee coverage for children within six months and cover 100% of basic preventative care such as physicals, mammograms and child immunizations.

This plan would cost Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons exactly ONE CENT MORE than they are already contributing, but they refuse to accept it because they want to contribute LESS to health care benefits than they do now.

What's worse, they want to make up for their reduced funding by using the vast majority of the grocery workers' health care trust fund reserves -- a move that could bankrupt the entire fund by the end of the contract, forcing drastic cuts to benefits and dramatically increasing out of pocket costs. This has happened in six other states due to the under-funding proposed by the markets.

On Wages:

Southern California's grocery workers haven't had a raise in five years. The CEO's of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons together made over $21 million in salary and bonuses last year alone, but they still refuse to give grocery workers a raise. And, the cost of living has increased over 12% since grocery workers had a raise in 2002.

What's worse is that Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons would like to reduce wages even further for new workers so that they would only make minimum wage.

This is unacceptable.

Grocery workers are still waiting for a wage proposal from the employers that includes a wage increase.

Ralphs, Albertsons and Vons are deliberately stalling. They do not want to pay their workers a fair wage, nor do they want to ensure they have health insurance. The grocery workers are not asking for anything outrageous. They just want to be able to provide for their families. If other chains can sign a similar contract, why can't they?

It has been a relatively quiet few weeks while the grocery workers and the big three chains tried to negotiate a deal. That ended today when the workers walked away from the table following an wholely unacceptable proposal from the employers. They had made demands that would have lead to further erosion of health benefits and wages for employees.

Mike Shimprock, spokesman for the Souther California Grocery Workers Union:

The markets are asking employees to pay more for benefits while the corporations pay less,. The employers are demanding their employees sacrifice even further only to increase the markets already record profits. If they want to further punish our members, we have nothing left to talk about.

It is unacceptable that these three companies, that are giving raises and bonuses in the millions to their CEOs and upper management, would seek to take away even more from their employees -- which haven't had a raise since 2002.

We will not stand by as the employers try to deny health care and fair wages to even more of their employees just to boost their already outrageous CEO salaries and profits. It is unfair, unacceptable and an insult to their employees, customers and the communities in which the stores operate.

When I get more information, I will be sure to update. It is extremely disappointing that these big companies refuse to agree to the same deal that the smaller chains are currently operating under, to great satisfaction by both sides.

I am absolutely buried in building out our information rich new feature on the presidential candidates. You my fair readers will have to put up with a linky post today and probably tomorrow too. After that, loads of good stuff, I promise.

Nunez introduced his AB 8 today, which is his health care plan. Here are is remarks on the subject. It comes from the new YouTube channel AssemblyAccess. It's like you are almost there, but with worse sound.

Watch Majority Leader Bass too

The implementation of the landmark AB 32 is chugging along. Weintraub has an update in today's column.

The grocery workers have dropped their NLRB complaint. This is part of an attempt by both sides to tone down the rhetoric and see if they can work things out. Neither side wants to see a strike.

Arnold's proposal for two new damns has stalled due to Democratic opposition in the legislature. Here is a thought, instead of maxing out the state's credit card on bonds, how about we do something that is actually environmentally friendly and ensure the high speed rail is on the ballot in 2008? I know, crazy right?

Speaking of the governor, he blew off the fact that he hasn't found anybody to cary his health care legislation in the legislature.

Schwarzenegger has yet to introduce legislation on his health-care proposal unveiled in January, but he said it didn't matter. The governor is relying on lawmakers, Democrat and Republican, to write bills from which he will pick and choose. "I think the action is to have a very clear vision and a goal," the governor said. "I have made it clear we want everyone to have insurance ... and that the insurance companies have to cover everyone, that they could not refuse anyone because of age or medical history."

We have now officially moved into the auto-renewal phase of the contract. It will continually renew the temporary contract extension until one of the two parties gives 72 hours notice that they are pulling out. The next meeting is set for the 16th and the UFCW has announced that they do not plan to cancel the extension this week.

The LA County Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, the Screen Acters Guild, Teamsters, CWA, SEIU, AFT and several other unions announced that they have sanctioned a USFC strike request. That means that the 800,000+ members will honor the picket line in the event of a work stoppage through a strike authorization or lockout.

Maria Elana Durazo at the LA Labor Fed:

Workers throughout Los Angeles have made a commitment today, to stand in solidarity with our grocery workers in their fight to make their jobs, good middle class jobs again. No Longer will we tolerate companies, who in their race to make more profits, are destroying what once made this city great, a strong middle class.

In granting a strike sanction, the Federation will support the grocery workers in various forms including picket line support, rallies, demonstrations, boycotts, food drives for strikers and coordinating public officials, unions and community support.

Robert Turner:

As an International Representative for the Teamsters, I can tell you this, we will not cross a picket line. It wouldn't be morally right to go against workers who work hard to make businesses profitable, but have no health care and struggle to provide for their families.

Elliot reminds us of what happened during the last labor dispute over at the Courage Campaign.

About 8,000 Teamsters tractor-trailer drivers and warehouse employees refused to cross the picket lines during the last Southern California supermarket labor dispute three years ago, forcing the markets to hire replacement workers to keep their supply lines flowing.

You should have seen the store managers trying to back an 18-wheeler into the stores' loading dock. Pure comedy.

Hopefully it will not come to that, but it does, there will be hundreds and thousands of people who have their back.

Albertsons, Vons and Ralphs have a new agreement in place to lockout all workers, if employees call a strike in any one chain. The pact is similar to the illegal activities the big grocery chains participated in during the last contract dispute. This is a disappointing move by the chains against their employees. Rather than working to negotiate a fair contract like Sater Bros. and Gelsons, they are ganging up on the employees.

Shimpock said the lockout agreement is evidence that the grocery companies are unwilling to negotiate fairly.

“This is a very foolish and risky escalation on the part of the markets,” Shimpock said. “They are threatening to punish and lock out employees at Ralphs and Vons, two markets that haven't even considered a strike authorization vote, and deny consumers shopping options.

“If they really wanted to protect their customers and employees, then they would have done what Stater Bros. and Gelson's markets did: negotiate a fair contract with their employees on time,” he added. “We do not want a strike; we want a fair contract. Our members have not had a wage increase since 2002, yet Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons are each averaging nearly $3 billion in profits.”

Litigation is ongoing from the previous dispute in 2003-04. Attorney General Jerry Brown is scheduled to go to trail against the big 3 in January.

The dirty tricks have begun again. We really shouldn't be surprised that the grocery stores would resort to breaking the law, in an attempt to weaken the workers negotiating position. After all, three years ago Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons entered into an illegal pact to share their profits, in order to outlast the worker strike. That landed them in court facing anti-trust charges. And just last year, Ralphs plead guilty to fraud charges and lying to the government. It was part of their scheme to use fake social security numbers to hire strikebreakers during the last contract dispute. They paid $70 million in fines and were placed on three years' probation.

Albertson's faced a strike vote Sunday and they immediately dug back into their bag of dirty tricks. They violated the National Labor Relations Act in the following ways:

• Sending home union activists to prevent them from speaking with fellow workers
• Keeping records of employee preferences on the strike authorization vote
• Directly asking workers how they were going to vote

Due to the weakness of the NLRB, it will be years until they will receive their light slaps on the wrist, if ever. It is another stark reminder of the necessity for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Billy Gonzalez an Albertsons Produce Clerk and UFCW Local 1428 member penned an email today about these outrageous violations of federal law. He says:

There are way too many things I want to write about today, so I am just going to condense them into one mostly linky post.

• An independent fact finding report by the contract mediator proved what the CSU faculty has been saying for years. They are being paid much less than professors at pier institutions. The report called for a 24.87% increase over four years, plus 10% in service step increase. The administration has agreed to use the report as a framework to negotiating a fair contract. The two sides have agreed to an extra ten day period to work out a deal without any strike activities.

  This is a positive step and hopefully a fair contract will be reached. These faculty members have been working without a contract for almost two years now. Frank Russo has more here.

• Skelton is a must read today. He takes Arnold to the woodshed for his comments about the presidential candidates. Arnold wants them to get specific about policy, particularly health care. Ironic, considering he was evasive and vague when running his own campaign last fall. And of course, it is not like he has actually found a legislator to introduce his health care proposal. It's still in the idea phase, not an actual piece of legislation.
• Albertsons grocery workers voted to authorize leadership to call a strike if and when necessary.
• There is a growing movement a sick-pay law at the national level.

The United States is virtually the only industrialized nation that does not mandate sick pay for private-sector employees. Nearly half of full-time workers — an estimated 57 million — don't have the benefit.

• This is just heartbreaking. Extreme poverty in California.
• Sen. Cogdill is pushing a program that would give people cash money to buy a cleaner vehicle in exchange for getting rid of their high-polluting one.

Sign the petition: Add your voice to support and demand respect for grocery workers.

Working in a grocery store used to mean a stable middle class living. That changed in Southern California with the creation of a two-tier wage structure in 2004. Those hired after the strike make significantly less than those employed prior and have a much harder time qualifying for health care benefits. It is the difference between a stable middle class existence and the high turnover of low-paying work that forces people to take multiple jobs to make ends meet.

You can see it in this video, created by UFCW. There are stark contrasts between those who have worked at these chains for decades and those hired after the strike and are now working two jobs.

This trend is not localized. From the AFL-CIO blog: