Grocery workers approve pact in Southern California

LOS ANGELES — More than 87 percent of workers at three giant Southern California supermarket chains voted to approve a new contract and avoid a replay of a lengthy 2004 strike and lockout, the employees union said Monday.

"It's a victory for us," said Chris Zazueta, a cashier at a Ralphs in Sherman Oaks. "The industry is getting back on track to what it was before: a decent middle-class job with quality benefits and decent pay."

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union did not specify how many of the roughly 65,000 employees voted to ratify the four-year contract with Supervalu's Albertsons, Kroger's Ralphs and Safeway's Vons and Pavilions.

The agreement was reached last Tuesday after seven months of negotiations, as grocery workers took steps toward a possible strike.

Among other things, the contract eliminates a two-tier system of employee pay and benefits. Now, all workers will be able to reach the same wage level for their job classification.

It also shortens the waiting period for health-insurance coverage for new hires and their children to six months, from as long as 30 months.

Health benefits is one of the issues in current contract talks in the Puget Sound area between UFCW Local 21 and Kroger, which owns QFC and Fred Meyer stores, and other grocery-store owners

Southern California grocery workers will receive a wage increase retroactive to March 5, when the previous contract expired.

Experienced workers can expect a $1.65 an hour raise during the course of the contract.

The agreement also calls for the union to pay $3,000 per employee from its health-care trust fund to help pay for the workers' health plan.

The union contribution amounts to $240 million, or 48 percent, of the health plan's funding, the union said.

Neither side wanted a repeat of the 141-day strike-lockout in 2004 that idled about 59,000 workers and cost the chains an estimated $2 billion.