(The Associated Press distributed the following article on December 21.)
LOS ANGELES — Ten weeks into a strike that has hit more than 800 grocery stores in Southern California, talks between the supermarkets’ operators and workers’ union came to an abrupt end after resuming for just one day.
Negotiators for the supermarkets rejected the union’s latest offer late on Friday. No new talks were scheduled, but there was some movement in the dispute.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union, whose members struck Safeway’s Vons and Pavilion’s stores on Oct. 11 and were immediately locked out of Ralphs and Albertson’s stores, said on Friday that it would pull its pickets from the stores’ distribution centers. And the Teamsters union, which struck in solidarity, said its members would return to work at those warehouses on Monday.
The talks between the food and commercial workers and three grocery operators resumed on Friday for about 12 hours after a two-week break.
Safeway, Kroger and Albertson’s have been negotiating as a bloc for a new labor contract.