A federal grand jury has indicted eight former and current Ralphs Grocery Co. executives and managers on 23 counts arising from a bitter Southern California supermarket labor dispute five years ago when the chain illegally rehired hundreds of locked-out workers.
The indictment said that five of those indicted, along with unnamed co-conspirators "engaged in a course of criminal conduct" that included hiring "employees under false names, Social Security numbers and documentation, which was intended to, and did, undermine the labor action."
Assistant U.S. Atty. Beong-Soo Kim said the investigation was still ongoing but declined to say whether there would be more indictments.
Ralphs, which has 261 stores from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, pleaded guilty to similar charges two years ago and paid $20 million in fines and $50 million into a fund to reimburse workers and their union. But federal investigators didn't stop there.
Attorneys for two of the defendants said their clients were innocent. The rest could not be reached for comment.
Workers who lived through the labor dispute said they were pleased the government had pursued the case. Keith Taylor, a frozen foods merchandiser who has worked for Ralphs for 12 years, said he had waited years for the indictments, but "nothing ever came of it -- until now."
"I'm absolutely ecstatic and I hope they throw the book at all of them," Taylor, 55, said. "We were put out on the street for 4 1/2 months and these people were secretly, behind our backs, hiring people and . . . doing all this stuff to make it look like they could work without us. These people violated the law."
Compton-based Ralphs said Friday that it was cooperating with the U.S. attorney's office. "Ralphs is working very hard to put this difficult chapter in our company history behind us and to win back the trust of our customers and associates and build our business," spokesman Terry O'Neil said.
This latest indictment, which was issued late Thursday and made public Friday, said the employees were sent to stores where they didn't normally work to avoid being recognized by customers and picketing colleagues.
According to the indictment, the indicted executives even circulated copies of a confidential strike manual that outlined the strategy of attracting experienced workers that store managers "could plausibly deny knowing" were actually locked-out employees.
