On Monday, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor said its 845,000 members would honor picket lines if the grocery workers go on strike or are locked out.
"Workers throughout Los Angeles County have made a commitment today, to stand in solidarity with our grocery workers in their fight to make their jobs good, middle-class jobs again," said Maria Elena Durazo, the labor federation's executive secretary-treasurer.
The agreement commits the federation to various kinds of assistance, including monetary help, walking the picket lines and gathering public and political support.
The three chains issued a statement calling the federation's decision "a standard occurrence after a strike authorization vote" that would "have no impact on our continued commitment to the negotiation process and to achieving a peaceful contract settlement."
In the meantime, workers and shoppers are preparing for the worst.
"I didn't think it was going to happen at first, but they have shown us that they think we are easily replaced, so I am expecting a lockout or a strike," said Erika Salas, a 29-year-old bookkeeper at a Vons in Torrance. Last time around, Salas worked on the union's hardship committee, helping to decide which members would get help with their rent, mortgages and other items. "I can't afford another strike, no question about that," Salas said. "I'll probably have to get another job."
Sharlette Villacorta, a 13-year veteran clerk who manages the deli at an Albertsons in Los Feliz, is paying off the loan she used to stay current on her mortgage, car payments and credit card bills in 2003-04.
"We signed the contract then because we couldn't have taken another day without work," said the 35-year-old mother of four young boys. "This time we thought the chains would be willing to get rid of the two-tier system."
Under the two-tier system, new hires must wait at least 12 months, sometimes longer, to become eligible for health insurance. The waiting period for family coverage is 30 months. The 65,000-member workforce is split almost evenly between those two groups.
But the two groups also are unequal in other ways, said Bruce Blackstone, 49, a 28-year veteran clerk and dairy manager at an Albertsons in Palmdale. Blackstone went through $10,000 in savings during the strike and lockout, forcing him to back out of a deal to buy a house. He is slowly building his way back, he said, but is tired of constantly covering for second-tier workers who give up on the lower wages and the long wait for benefits and quit.
