Grocery strike averted as chains, union reach accord - Workers are expected to ratify the tentative four-year agreement.

The accord would make up some of the ground the United Food and Commercial Workers union lost in a bitter, lengthy walkout and lockout 3 1/2 years ago.

"We have recovered a lot without a strike," said Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles. "I think our members will overwhelmingly accept this. The wage increase and improvement in health plan benefits are significant."

Management representatives confirmed that an accord had been reached but declined to comment on it.

The contract, which still must be ratified by union members at 785 Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons stores in votes Sunday, came together in nine straight days of bargaining that often extended into early morning hours.

A spokesman for the union said its leaders would recommend that members accept the contract.

The deal would ensure labor peace for grocery stores from San Diego to Bakersfield and enable the big supermarket chains to focus on threats from a giant British grocer planning to enter the lucrative Southern California market and from smaller, mostly nonunion competitors looking to grow in the region.

Labor analysts said the proposed contract looked like a win for the UFCW, which was considered to have lost the 141-day work stoppage in 2003-04.

That dispute drove about half of the union's members out of the grocery business and created a divided workforce. The 33,000 workers hired in the last three years, who account for about half of store employees, receive less in wages and benefits than veteran workers.

"It looks like the companies pulled back and are taking a step away from the low-wage, low-benefit and high-turnover direction they were headed in," said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.

Neither side would disclose terms of the accord reached Tuesday. But people familiar with the pact said it would give workers their first scheduled raises since 2002. It also would raise the top wage rate and make all employees -- not just veterans -- eligible to reach it.

The contract would slash the amount of time newer workers would have to wait to get health insurance to six months from as long as 18 months, the sources said. The health-insurance waiting period for children of newer workers would shrink to six months from 30 months.