GROCERY DEAL CLOSE GROCERS, UNIONS SAY ACCORD COULD BE ANNOUNCED TODAY.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

The five-month impasse between three leading grocery chains and nearly 60,000 striking workers appeared to be near an end Wednesday night with both sides saying only formalities need to be resolved.

Sources close to the negotiations for the supermarkets and the strikers said a deal could be announced as early as today.

``The final details are being hammered out and an agreement is imminent,'' said one source.

Talks in the labor dispute lasted through a 15th straight day Wednesday.

The primary disagreements between the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons are cuts in medical benefits and a proposed two-tier wage system that would reduce compensation for new employees.

If the labor dispute is still going this afternoon, presidential candidate John Kerry will join pickets at a Santa Monica Vons to advocate ``quality, affordable health insurance for all Americans.''

Despite the rumored settlement on these issues, grocery workers picketing in the rain Wednesday were hesitant to celebrate after 138 days of joblessness.

``At this point we've heard rumors for so long, we just say we'll believe it when we see it,'' said Barby Dougherty, 54, the picket captain at a Mission Hills Vons.

``I'm afraid of getting my hopes up until I see what the contract is. We'd all want to see the contract before we rejoice.''

The current round of negotiations began Feb. 11 with the involvement of the director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Peter J. Hurtgen.

Hurtgen has imposed a media blackout, barring company executives and union leaders from discussing the talks.

The union has seen its picket lines dwindle as strikers return to work or look elsewhere for jobs, and the supermarkets have lost more than $1 billion in sales.

Moreover, analysts say that the big three chains - which previously controlled 60 percent of the grocery market in Southern California - will permanently lose market share.

Meanwhile, about 59,000 grocery store employees from San Diego to Bakersfield have been out of work for nearly five months. In all, about 850 stores were affected by the labor dispute.

With UFCW labor contracts expiring from Seattle to Washington, D.C., in the coming months, the Southern California resolution will have far- reaching effects, according to analysts and labor experts.

``Our locals and members in other parts of the country are preparing to hold the line again against similar outrageous demands that the employers offered last October,'' said Jill Cashen, spokeswoman for the UFCW International in Washington, D.C.

Even beyond the supermarket industry, the strike and the contract that ends it will be looked at closely as the entire retail industry faces intense discounting and other economic pressures.

``This is a strike that's important in its own right, and one that sends a powerful symbolic message throughout the economy,'' said Harley Shaken, a labor relations professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Nicholas Grudin, [phone]

nicholas.grudin(at)dailynews.com

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Kirk Spencer, a Vons cashier, said he'll be glad to return to work but predicted a rough transition for all workers because the stress and tension built between managers and striking employees.

Damian Dovarganess/Associated Press