By JACOB ADELMAN
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Negotiators for workers at Southern California's largest grocery chains reached a deal Monday to avoid a repeat of a four-month strike eight years ago that cost the industry $2 billion and created havoc for shoppers.
Union leaders worked through a deadline Sunday, when more than 60,000 workers could have walked off the job, and bargained through the night to reach the tentative pact by noon that addresses health benefits.
The deal likely came as a relief to many shoppers. Supermarket executives had planned to close hundreds of stores if there had been a strike.
"The grocery workers of Southern California stood together, strong and united, throughout this long and difficult process," Southern California's United Food and Commercial Workers local unions said in a news release. "They refused to accept anything less than a contract that protects their wages, benefits and working conditions."
Members were set to vote on the deal Saturday. The union said details of the terms won't be publicly released until the vote is taken.
Some 62,000 grocery employees have been working without a contract since March while in discussions with The Vons Cos.; Ralphs Grocery Co., a subsidiary of The Kroger Co.; and Albertsons, which is owned by Supervalu Inc.
The three companies released a joint statement lauding the deal, which they said "continues to preserve good wages, secure pensions and access to quality, affordable health care - while allowing us to be competitive in the marketplace."
Ralphs had indicated it would initially close all 250 of its stores if there had been a strike; Albertsons had said it could shutter up to 100 of its locations, while Vons had said its stores would remain open.
Both sides in the dispute announced in July that they had reached a tentative agreement on the employers' contributions to pension benefits, but payments to the union health care trust fund remained a major sticking point.
Union members voted overwhelmingly last month to authorize their leaders to call a strike.
Those leaders said they were responding to what they characterized as the chains' delaying tactics when they issued the required 72-hour notice Thursday evening to cancel the contract extension under which they had been working since March.
But after the Sunday evening deadline came and went with neither a strike nor a deal, store employees returned to work Monday.
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