Tentative pact in S. Calif. grocery labor talks

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Union leaders said Monday they reached a tentative deal with some of Southern California's largest grocery chains that would head off the threat of a strike by more than 60,000 workers.

The deal, which must be approved by the union's membership, protects workers' health policies, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324 president Fred Conger said.

"Thanks to the unity of our members and the hard work of our negotiating team, we were successful in bargaining an agreement that grocery workers can be proud of," Conger said in a statement.

Members were set to vote on the deal Saturday. The union said details won't be publicly released until the vote is taken.

Some 62,000 grocery employees have been working without a contract since March, while in discussions with negotiators for The Vons Cos. Inc.; Ralphs Grocery Co., a subsidiary of The Kroger Co.; and Albertsons, owned by Supervalu Inc.

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."

Both sides in the dispute announced in July that they had reached a tentative agreement on the employers' contributions to pension benefits, but payments to the union health care trust fund remained a major sticking point.

Union members voted overwhelmingly last month to authorize their leaders to call a strike.

Those leaders said they were responding to what they characterized as the chains' delaying tactics when they issued the required 72-hour notice Thursday evening to cancel the contract extension under which they had been working since March.

But after the Sunday evening deadline came and went with neither a strike nor a deal, store employees returned to work on Monday.

A four-month strike and lockout that began in 2003 cost Ralphs and other grocery chains an estimated $2 billion.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-09-19-Supermarket%20Labor/id-1a836c4c5ba349a6b7f7c9e6b56cdc96

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