Grocery Store Workers Give Three-Day Notice for Possible Strike

People who shop at the local Ralphs and Vons grocery stores in Marina del Rey might soon be forced with a choice—cross picket lines or go somewhere else. 

Dozens of workers joined a rally Friday morning in Marina del Rey that started at the Ralphs at 4311 Lincoln Blvd. and moved to the Vons at 4365 Glencoe Ave. to underscore the looming threat of a workers' strike.

After months of negotiations, the grocery workers union Thursday night moved a step closer to calling a strike and gave three-day notice to cancel its contract, according to a statement from labor leaders.

Cancelling the contract removes the final barrier to a strike. If a deal can’t be reached by 7 p.m. Sunday, a strike can be called at any time.

Chelsea Davenport, 22, a barista at the Starbucks inside the Marina del Rey Vons store, joined the rally Friday morning becasue she was worried about health care for herself and her fellow workers.

Davenport said she has a pre-existing condition called hydrocephalus, which can lead to a buildup of fluid inside the skull.

"It's a big deal to me that we don't lose our health care because I won't be able to be insured again," Davenport said.

Davenport, who lives in Torrance and is putting herself through school at El Camino College, said she was prepared to go on strike, if necessary.

"It comes down to a choice between losing some money now and being able to live and go to school here in the long run," she said.

Davenport said that under the proposed contract she would face higher deductibles, higher pharmacy prices and see more taken out of her paycheck for health care.

If there is a strike, Ralphs will initially close all of its stores because it will be difficult to maintain a good working shopping experience and work environment for its employees, said Kendray Doyel, a Ralphs spokeswoman on Friday.

The United Food and Commercial Workers represents 62,000 employees of the Albertsons, Vons and Ralphs grocery stores in Southern California. Management and labor leaders have been at the bargaining table trying to reach a deal on a new contract for eight months.

They have been working under the terms of a contract that was extended after it expired in March.

“We’re ready to fight to preserve good jobs,” union leaders said in a statement. “We understand this is a tough economy, but we’re willing to stand up for workers everywhere being taken advantage of by profitable corporations. It is unfair and wrong for these corporations doing so well to use the economy as an excuse to squeeze those working paycheck to paycheck.”

Vons released a statement in response to the action:

We are disappointed by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Locals’ decision to give the employers 72 hour notice of the cancellation of the contract extension. Doing so needlessly alarms our employees and our customers.

The notice does not mean a strike is imminent or that a strike will necessarily occur at any point. The notice simply allows the union the ability to call a strike if they choose to do so. Vons and the other employers intend to remain focused on the negotiation process and urge the unions to do so the same.

Union negotiators want the stores to pay the same share of their health care benefits as in the past, but their counterparts want the employees to pay up to 80 percent of the costs, according to the head of the UFCW in San Diego, Mickey Kasparian.

He said in June that the issue was the same as the one that prompted a 141-day strike in 2003-04.

Davenport said she's been grateful for the support of her customers as the strike talk has ramped up recently.

"They tell me every day that they won't cross the picket line," she said. "I hope it doesn't come down to that, but it's nice to know that I'm backed if it does"