Southern California grocery union gives supermarkets Sept. 9 deadline in hopes of averting a strike
Claiming little progress has been made in ongoing contract talks with the supermarket chains, union leaders from throughout Southern California have set a deadline of Sept. 9 for a vote on whether to ratify — or reject — the companies’ final offer.
The deadline was set after four days of talks concluded Sunday with no agreement reached. While a new round of negotiations is scheduled to start Sept. 4 and go through Sept. 8, United Food and Commercial Workers union locals decided late Sunday it was time to hold a vote of their members on a specific contract proposal.
In late June, thousands of grocery workers across Southern California and parts of Central California, voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing their union leadership to call a strike should contract talks with Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, and the Pavilions stores fail to yield a satisfactory agreement. Some 46,000 unionized workers, from north of Santa Maria to the U.S.- Mexico border, are still working under a three-year contract that expired March 3.
“Our goal is to negotiate a contract, not a strike, and hopefully we can come to a conclusion but this is in the supermarkets’ hands,” Todd Walters, president of San Diego County’s UFCW Local 135, said Monday. “The unions are very frustrated with the games the companies are playing by making us wait all day on Sunday and then doing nothing until 5 p.m.”
Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/story/2019-08-26/southern-california-grocery-union-gives-supermarkets-sept-9-deadline-in-hopes-of-averting-a-strike
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I do most of my grocery shopping at Ralphs, and hadn't heard anything more about how the negotiations are going--until I read your post.
I hope a strike can be averted, but not if it hurts the workers. I have contingency plans if they do walk out.
Thanks for your timely post, my dear TexasTowelie!
And your very timely post was the genesis for that.
I too hope that they won't need to strike. I used to belong to a union and we struck our employer. It was not a pretty situation and it left scars on both sides. But sometimes it's the only weapon you have.
