(The following story by George Raine appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle website on February 26.)
SAN FRANCISCO — Union and supermarket-owner negotiators are close to settling the barbed labor dispute in Southern California that began with a strike Oct. 11 and has idled 70,000 workers ever since, sources said Wednesday.
An announcement could come as soon as today, the sources said, although terms of the deal were not available.
The two sides are cooperating with a federal mediator, Peter Hurtgen, who requested a news blackout on the delicate negotiations. But when the negotiators for the United Food and Commercial Workers and the chains — Safeway, Albertson’s and Kroger — passed the two-week mark Wednesday in consecutive days of meetings, union leaders began speaking privately about a possible resolution.
The primary issue separating the sides is the owners’ demand that workers share a greater burden of health care costs. The owners say they need to lower those costs to remain competitive with nonunion rivals. The owners are asking workers to pay $5 weekly for individual insurance coverage and $15 weekly for family coverage, and the benefits would be reduced.
Throughout the debate, Safeway spokesman Brian Dowling has said Safeway workers “will go from a hyper-premium to a mere premium level” in health care benefits.
Although details of the apparent agreement have not been disclosed, it’s widely assumed that the owners held their ground and that workers will be disappointed with the result.
But health care costs last year increased 14 percent nationally and 16 percent for Southern California grocery clerks. It was the third consecutive year of double-digit increases nationally, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the largest increase since 1990.
The grocery workers have had no co-payments required under their policies, while 96 percent of U.S. workers have a co-payment for doctor visits, the study found.
The labor dispute may have cost the grocers $2.5 billion, one impetus to reach a settlement and allay Wall Street concerns. Workers at Safeway-owned Vons and Pavilions went on strike Oct. 11, and Albertson’s and Kroger-owned Ralphs locked out their workers the next day. The three bargained jointly with seven locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
The strike and lockout idled 70,000 workers in 852 stores from the Mexican border to San Luis Obispo County.
Meanwhile, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said a contract covering 12,000 Costco workers in California has been ratified.
Teamsters president James Hoffa noted the grocery workers’ struggle and said his union’s contract “is an example of what can happen when the union and the company cooperate at the negotiating table.”
Rome Aloise, a Teamster representative, said the Costco workers agreed to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums, but that was offset by increased wages and bonuses and a pension increase.
The Costco workers, voting over several weeks, ratified the contract by a 94 percent margin. The ballots were tallied on Monday.