TEMPS WILL HAVE TO GIVE UP JOBS TO RETURNING WORKERS.Byline: Barbara Correa Staff Writer A strike settlement may come as welcome news to striking supermarket workers on the picket lines since October, but it likely will mean loss of their jobs for the thousands of workers hired to replace them. Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons hired thousands of replacement employees last October in anticipation of 59,000 Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, supermarket workers walking out or being locked out. Outside contractors hired by the three supermarket companies rounded up workers from as far away as New Jersey, flew them to California, put them up in hotels and bused them to stores for the duration. Now, these workers' West Coast vacation may be coming to an end. ``There was a very aggressive (recruiting) drive on the part of the supermarkets, but it was very clear that these would be temporary positions, so they took these jobs with that understanding,'' said Kent Wong, director of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. . Union representatives said it was unclear how many of the stores' original workers would be going back to their jobs under the new settlement, but that most were expected to return. ``We won't know until this is settled ... but we believe people will come back,'' said Barbara Maynard, a spokeswoman 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. The three supermarket companies involved did not return calls seeking comment this week. State employment numbers showed a blip last October that economists attributed to the hiring of replacement workers. California added 34,800 jobs that month, mostly in retail, which would have included supermarket replacement workers. This time around, the shift from replacement to returning grocery employee may affect the numbers again, though not in any dramatic way, said Jack Kyser, chief economist The Chief Economist is a single position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis. It is distinguished from the other economist positions by the broader scope of responsibility encompassing the at the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Economic Development Corp. One reason is that some replacement workers will probably be kept on by the supermarkets. ``The overall state numbers will be seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted Mathematically adjusted by moderating a macroeconomic indicator (e.g., oil prices/imports) so that relative comparisons can be drawn from month to month all year. ,'' said Kyser. ``So some mischief will show up in the numbers, but just how much mischief you don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. .'' Barbara Correa, (818) 713-3634 barbara.correa(at)dailynews.com |
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