Ralph's Workers Gearing Up to Walk Off

Grocery store workers in Southern California were gearing up today to go on strike.

About 62,000 members of United Food and Commercial Workers have started making pickets and could walk off the job as early as Sunday evening.

There are two Ralph's locations in North Hollywood. For people who live in the NoHo Arts District, the on Magnolia Boulevard is the only major gorcery story in the area and will leave shoppers struggling to find an affordable alternative.

All Ralphs and as many as 100 Albertsons would close in the event of a strike, while Vons would stay open, store representatives said Friday.

On Thursday, the union issued a required 72-hour notice that its workers could go on strike.

If workers strike, Ralphs stores would be gradually reopened on a case-by-case basis, said Kendra Doyel, Ralphs vice president of public relations.

Albertsons said it was not necessarily in its best interest to stay open.

"One of the lessons we learned during the 2003-2004 labor dispute is that it doesn't make good business sense to try to operate all our stores during a strike," an executive said in a statement issued Friday.

The 141-day strike, during which all three chains stayed open, cost the stores an estimated $1.5 billion.

Members of UFCW had been working without a contract since March 6.

North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch has 61 businesses listed under Grocery Stores for our readers seeking shopping alternatives to Ralph's should a strike happen.