GROCER LOCKOUT PROBED LOCKYER SAYS CHAINS' REVENUE-SHARING PACT MAY BE ANTITRUST VIOLATION.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

Attorney General Bill Lockyer launched an investigation Monday into whether Southern California's three largest supermarket chains locked in an eight-week strike by 70,000 clerks violated antitrust laws by agreeing to a financial pact to share their profits.

The probe into Ralphs, Vons and Albertson's by the Democratic attorney general, an outspoken supporter of the strikers, follows weeks of union allegations and a consumer lawsuit claiming that the supermarkets are illegally sharing revenue in order to blunt the impact of the strike on any single chain. Clerks struck Vons on Oct. 11 and the other markets then locked out their workers.

Lockyer subpoenaed the grocery stores for records of their pact, saying the deal could be a violation of state and federal antitrust laws.

``This investigation will seek to determine whether the stores ... are playing fair and within the rules set by state and federal law,'' Lockyer said.

Supermarket officials did not immediately return calls. They have previously acknowledged that a profit-sharing agreement exists and described it as similar to those made by airlines and automakers faced with a strike.

The investigation comes as leaders of the United Food and Commercial Workers union and supermarket officials reconvene at the bargaining table today, the latest meeting in a drawn-out federal mediation process that is already tenuous and strained.

According to union negotiators, Lockyer's investigation should compel supermarket officials to reconsider their stance.

``The attorney general's position that it may be an illegal pact only accentuates the fact that the employers need to come to the table and bargain in good faith, and quit developing a conspiracy to undermine their employees by insisting on these reductions in medical care,'' said Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770.

``This vindicates the unions.''

The UFCW had previously filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board claiming that an agreement between the supermarkets must be made public, Icaza said. A civil lawsuit citing the grocery company pact was also filed by a group of California consumers.

Lockyer has been a strong backer of the UFCW, and has appeared at rallies and walked picket lines over the course of the work stoppage.

In Monday's statement, he reiterated his support for the striking and locked-out workers.

``The parent companies of the stores in this dispute combine for more than $100 billion in annual sales,'' Lockyer said. ``But sales figures do not measure a company's true worth, or the quality of the life a family lives now or in the future. Those are the interests these striking workers have at stake as they struggle to meet their families' basic needs.''

The labor dispute, which Icaza calls ``a civil war,'' began Oct. 11 after union leaders and supermarket officials failed to resolve contract disputes over proposed cuts to pension plans and medical benefits. UFCW employees struck Vons and Pavilions stores, and Albertson's and Ralphs subsequently locked out their workers.

In all, more than 70,000 employees from 859 Southern California stores walked out.

Over the course of the 51-day strike, pickets have been removed from Ralphs in a UFCW effort to focus pressure on the other two stores.

Last week, the Teamsters vowed to honor picket lines at the stores' regional distribution centers, a move that choked the chains' food supply as Thanksgiving approached.

Nicholas Grudin, [phone]

nicholas.grudin(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) - Bill Lockyer