Vons Grocery Co

Southern California's three largest supermarket chains and the grocery workers union resumed talks Monday with both sides urging harmony. Negotiations broke down April 4 amid escalating tensions over the threat of a strike by the union and an employee lockout by the companies. Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons are negotiating with the union to craft a new agreement for its 65,000 workers. It will replace a contract that originally was set to expire March 5, but has been extended twice.

Union leaders representing 65,000 grocery workers on Tuesday broke off contract talks with Southern California's largest supermarket chains in a dispute over health insurance. The breakdown in negotiations may push the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons closer to a repeat of the bitter strike and lockout that turned Southern California grocery shopping into disarray for nearly five months beginning in October 2003.

As Southern California's grocery workers union readies for a strike vote Sunday, there are already efforts to restart negotiations with the big supermarket chains, possibly as soon as Wednesday, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Talks broke off Thursday between the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons over a contract for 65,000 workers.

Contract negotiations between representatives of Southern California's three largest supermarket chains and 65,000 union workers continued at a secret location Thursday. But as the give-and-take continued for a second day, there was no word of any breakthrough. New proposals had been delivered to the Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons chains, United Food and Commercial Workers spokesman Mike Shimpock said, but he offered no details.

The Vons supermarket chain is taking scissors to its double coupon policy. The division of Safeway Inc. has eliminated double coupon redemptions at about 200 supermarkets in Southern California in recent months and plans to kill the promotion at the remaining 100 stores in its core market of Los Angeles and Orange counties this spring. That's bad news for Kathy Makowski, an Irvine grocery maven whose children roll their eyes when she starts talking about coupons.

A Ventura County jury on Friday awarded $18 million to a Vons clerk who claimed he was fired because he said a female supervisor sexually harassed him. James Stevens, now 48, filed a lawsuit in 2004 alleging that a supervisor, Laura Marko, had taunted him daily with sexual gestures and remarks. Stevens said Marko suggestively held a feather duster between her legs and made crude statements regarding his body.

Labor advocates Monday accused some Vons supermarkets of continuing to pay janitors illegally low wages, moments after a federal judge approved the $22.4-million settlement of a class-action lawsuit that had accused Vons and two other grocery chains of such violations.

Secret talks aimed at ending the supermarket strike and lockout in Southern and Central California broke off with no resolution Sunday, three months from the date the job actions began. "We're extremely disappointed," said Ellen Anreder, a spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Representatives of the UFCW and three supermarket companies "were trying to develop some kind of common ground" before resuming formal negotiations with a federal mediator, Anreder said.

Another California public pension fund called on the supermarket chains to end a 3-month-old strike and lockout that the fund says is harming its investments in the chains. The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Assn. voted to urge the stores -- Safeway Inc., which owns Vons and Pavilions; Kroger Co., the parent of Ralphs; and Albertsons Inc. -- to solve their dispute with the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

Police arrested 15 demonstrators Saturday for blocking the entrance to a Vons supermarket in Garden Grove during a labor rally that drew more than 1,200 striking grocery workers and supporters. "We held this rally to heighten the awareness of the general public that this strike is still continuing," said Rick Eiden, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.