In newspaper ads and letters to workers, the major supermarket chains are portraying the strike in Southern California as a tussle over just $5 to $15 a week.
That's the range, the chains say, that workers would have to pay for quality health insurance under the employer-proposed contract.
FOR THE RECORD
Los Angeles Times Saturday December 06, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Supermarket strike -- In its coverage of the supermarket strike and lockout that began Oct. 11, The Times has said repeatedly that the labor dispute affected 859 union grocery stores in Southern and Central California. In fact, 852 stores are affected.
The United Food and Commercial Workers contends that the weekly sums the chains are talking about would buy a bargain-basement plan at best. To maintain the health benefits the old pact guaranteed would cost workers an average of $95 by the third year of the new contract, according to the union's chief benefits consultant, Sidney Abrams, who also heads the health benefits committee of the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
That, largely, is what the strike is all about: What constitutes a fair and properly funded health insurance plan and how much of the bill should employees foot?
The two sides answer the questions very differently.
For example, the three chains have proposed a bare-bones plan for people hired under the new contract. The chains say those benefits would be on a par with what other retailers offer their workers. Abrams says the result would be a "pathetic sham of a health plan" that many would simply opt not to buy.
The union made its case at a news conference Wednesday, where labor leaders said the grocery chains were misrepresenting the facts. The chains responded with a statement saying the union was painting a "worst-case scenario."
"We are confident that with modest changes in the plan, including a small employee contribution to health-care premiums, we will continue to deliver some of the best health-care coverage in the nation to our current employees," said the statement from Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Albertsons Inc. and Vons, a unit of Safeway Inc.
In an interview, a top supermarket official who asked not to be identified conceded that company contributions -- combined with the suggested employee payments of $5 for individual coverage or $15 for family coverage -- would not buy the top-flight insurance that union members have enjoyed and for which they have paid no premiums.
"We have never said that what we have on the table now will guarantee the existing plan of benefits for the term of the agreement," the official said.
The strike that started Oct. 11 has put picket lines in front of 859 Vons, Pavilions, Ralphs and Albertsons stores, from the Mexican border to Mono County.
