On strike's third day, both sides say they're winning

As a strike of grocery clerks against three major supermarket chains in Southern California entered its third day Monday, both sides were claiming victories of sorts.

"We understand that business at these stores was off 60 percent on Sunday," said Mickey Kasparian, president of Local 135 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

The UFCW is one of America's largest trade unions, and Local 135, with 10,000 members, represents employees, including those on strike or locked out at all 131 of San Diego County's Vons, Albertson's and Ralphs supermarkets. The strike in Southern California and others in the Midwest and Southeast are being watched closely as a potential harbinger of trouble for grocery chains nationwide.

On the other hand: "All of our stores are open, all of our pharmacies are open, and the stores are fully staffed and serving their customers," said Ralphs spokesman Terry O'Neil.

The union and the three chains continued talks until late Saturday, when workers at Vons walked off their jobs.

"It's harmful and irresponsible, what the union has done," O'Neil said. Local 135 did not strike O'Neil's store, Ralphs; picket lines at Vons stores prompted Ralphs and Albertson's to lock out their Local 135 workers.

"We will continue to operate our stores for the duration -- however long that is. We want the union to come back to the bargaining table," O'Neil said.

Vons and Albertson's spokespersons said before the strike began that their companies intended to keep their stores open and that they would maintain full service at the stores. They have not returned telephone calls since the walkout asking about store hours and services.

Customers of Vons pharmacies called the North County Times throughout the day to complain that the pharmacy counters were closed at most Vons stores, and that at the stores where they were open, prescription-filling delays were projected to be more than a day. At some pharmacies, customers said, already-filled prescriptions could not be picked up, leading to possible problems with insurance companies even if another pharmacy could be found to fill them.

Representatives of Vons and Albertson's did not return calls Monday inquiring about lost sales. Ralphs' O'Neil replied that "it is against company policy to discuss sales."

Union officials insist they were puzzled when the two chains they did not strike locked out their members, even though the union had made appeals to keep the stores operating with union employees.

"It was our strategic plan to try to soften the blow for the consumer, which we hoped would strengthen the goodwill we have with the public," Kasparian said while visiting pickets at a Vons store on Scripps Poway Parkway in Poway Monday.

The chains apparently wanted to appear totally united as a bargaining posture, although there might have been advantages for the stores had Ralphs and Albertson's not voluntarily jumped overboard when Vons was forced to walk the plank. Just as the union hoped two profitable chains would make the strike more painful for the supermarket it struck, the stores could have tried to split union membership into full pay with benefits and strike pay divisions, possibly weakening the strikers' resolve, Kasparian said. Strike pay is $300 per 40-hour week.


