Grocery workers, hungry to return to their jobs, overwhelmingly approved a new three-year contract this weekend, ending a nearly five-month strike and lockout that cost the supermarket chains almost $1.5 billion in lost sales and disrupted the shopping patterns of millions of consumers throughout Southern California.
Officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers union declared the strike a victory in announcing Sunday evening that the pact was approved by 86% of the voting membership. But support for the contract from many union members was grudging at best.
"It was take it, or there's the door," said Ralphs cashier Carlos Beltran, 25, who voted "yes" at Local 770's polling place in Hollywood. "They are all thieves, the companies and the unions. They're just sticking it to us."
Still, not everyone was unhappy. "I'm glad we're going back to work, and I supported the strike," union member Andrea Gonzales said after hearing the results Sunday night.
"But I've always told people that this is the best business with the best pay and benefits, and no matter what this contract says they're not going to find anything better," said Gonzales, a Ralphs service manager in Riverside and 28-year veteran of the industry.
The agreement covers 70,000 workers from San Diego to Santa Barbara. People who have been on strike or locked out of Albertsons, Ralphs, Vons and Pavilions stores since Oct. 11 will be back at their old jobs by Friday, a union spokeswoman said.
The contract will put veteran workers and new hires in separate pay and benefits tiers for the first time. The newly hired will receive substantially less in wages and benefits, slashing stores' labor costs.
The two-tier plan was a key goal of the three supermarket companies: Albertsons Inc.; Kroger Co., which owns Ralphs; and Safeway Inc., which owns Vons and Pavilions. Some union members said they were unhappy about the two-tier plan but cast ballots for it anyway.
"What these companies got is cheap labor so they can perform in the stock market," said Danny Mauro, 52, a clerk at Ralphs.
Others said they had no quarrel with the contract. "I can't wait to quit my other job and go back to work," said Angelina Salamanca, 29, a Ralphs clerk temporarily employed in a coffee shop.
