The prospect of a strike at Albertsons grocery stores conjured up an unhappy sense of deja vu for workers and customers Sunday as they wondered what was ahead.
The three-year contract for workers at the three largest Southland grocery chains is set to expire April 9 after two extensions in the last month. On Sunday, union workers at Supervalu Inc.'s Albertsons were voting on whether to give union leaders the authority to call a strike.
Still fresh in the minds of workers and customers was the lengthy impasse during the 2003-2004 grocery-store strike and lockout in Southern California.
"I don't want to go on strike," said Arturo Loza, 39, of Gardena, a 20-year Albertsons employee. "I'm still recovering from the last one. I came this close to losing my house."
Shoppers, meanwhile, recalled how they went out of their way to find grocery stores, such as Trader Joe's, Costco Wholesale Corp. and Stater Bros., that were not involved in the labor dispute.
"I'll go somewhere else to support them," said shopper Alisha Mitchell, 38, of Long Beach, as she loaded bags of groceries into her SUV.
But because of prior agreements, the earliest Albertsons workers could walk off the job would be April 13, and even a strike that day would be unlikely, union representatives say.
"The last thing we want is a strike," said Michael Shimpock of SG&A Campaigns, a Pasadena media and political consulting firm hired by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to speak about the talks. "But the employers have left us no choice but to authorize a strike. We must show them we are serious about demanding a fair and timely contract."
Albertsons last week issued a statement calling the strike vote an "irresponsible" move "to frighten our employees and alarm our customers."
"It is disturbing that the unions are considering the possibility of a strike at this stage in the negotiations, given the hardships incurred just over three years ago by our employees, our customers and our companies during the last labor dispute," the company said.
Albertsons has 22,000 UFCW workers at 249 stores in the region.
Seven of the union's Southern California locals are locked in negotiations with Albertsons, Kroger Co.'s Ralphs and Safeway Inc.'s Vons over a new agreement. Shoppers don't like the idea of labor dispute when the 2003 strike and lockout is still such a recent memory.
