GROCERY WORKERS MAY STRIKE IF TALKS FIZZLE.Byline: Kevin Smith Staff Writer Tense labor negotiations between three of California's biggest grocery chains and about 70,000 grocery workers could lead to a strike as early as this weekend, a union spokeswoman said Monday. Barbara Maynard, speaking for the United Food and Commercial Workers The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is a labor union representing approximately 1.4 million workers in the United States and Canada in many industries, including agriculture, health care, meatpacking, poultry and food processing, manufacturing, textile and Union, Local 770, said the workers' current contract with Albertson's Inc., Ralphs, Vons and Pavilions is set to expire at midnight Sunday - and things aren't looking good. ``This year, our negotiations started right after Labor Day Labor Day, holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada on the first Monday in September to honor the laborer. It was inaugurated by the Knights of Labor in 1882 and made a national holiday by the U.S. Congress in 1894. , but historically they would have started long before then and a deal would have been struck,'' she said. ``This time around, the employees knew something was up.'' The proposal currently on the table would require workers to pay $1,300 a year for family insurance premiums. The plan also includes big increases in deductibles and co-pays for doctor visits, hospital visits and prescription drugs prescription drug Prescription medication Pharmacology An FDA-approved drug which must, by federal law or regulation, be dispensed only pursuant to a prescription–eg, finished dose form and active ingredients subject to the provisos of the Federal Food, Drug, . ``If they are in an HMO HMO health maintenance organization. HMO n. A corporation that is financed by insurance premiums and has member physicians and professional staff who provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, now they have no co-pay for a doctor visit,'' Maynard said. ``But that goes up to $20 per visit under this proposal if they visit their primary care doctor and $40 a visit for a specialist.'' Vons spokeswoman Sandra Calderon declined to discuss details, but said the new proposal reflects the ``changing landscape'' of the retail industry. Workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. and health-care costs have risen steeply in recent years, she said - not to mention the encroaching competition from nonunion nonunion /non·union/ (non-un´yun) failure of the ends of a fractured bone to unite. non·un·ion n. The failure of a fractured bone to heal normally. competitors, such as Wal-Mart. ``We have a lot of nonunion competition and we have to be able to compete with that,'' she said. ``It affects a number of things, including labor costs, health and welfare issues ... pensions. We're looking at all of it.'' Vons has always offered its workers a generous compensation package, about double what the nonunion competition is paying, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Calderon. And therein lies part of the problem. ``Because the nonunion companies aren't offering even half of what we're paying, they can lower the price on their merchandise,'' she said. ``They can outcompete us.'' Calderon said Vons is ``cautiously optimistic'' about a settlement, but emphasized that the unions need to realize the retail landscape has changed. Kevin Smith, (626) 962-8811 kevin.smith(at)sgvn.com |
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