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A tentative deal has been struck in the negotiations between representatives from three supermarket chains and the union representing 62,000 Southland grocery store workers, the president of the workers union confirmed. ... Details of the agreement have not yet been made public. Any tentative agreement struck at the negotiation table will still have to be voted on by union members before it is approved. The agreement will be presented to union members for ratification later this week. Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons issued the following joint statement: "We are pleased to have reached a tentative settlement agreement with the union that...

The Ralphs supermarket chain has decided to shut down all of its Southern California stores for an undetermined amount of time if grocery workers go on strike, while Albertsons plans to close up to 100 of its stores.

No breakthroughs were reported as round-the-clock negotiations approached a 7:10 p.m. strike deadline set by the union representing 62,000 grocery store clerks in Southern California. Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons officials continued to meet with the workers' representatives at an undisclosed location, while union stewards spent the day passing out picket signs. No grocery chain official would comment, but a union spokesman said no progress had been made today. Clerks at a pair of Ralphs and Vons supermarkets in Santa Monica today said both chains had not reduced their deliveries of fresh baked goods, produce, milk and meat to the stores....

Talks continued Saturday but employees could walk off job Sunday night Mike Knapp wasn’t sympathetic when he heard the news that grocery workers in Southern California might walk off the job in coming days. “Go ahead and strike, lots of people need a job,” he wrote Friday in comments on SignOnSanDiego.com. “I will see all of you as I cross the picket line.” He’s among many people who are criticizing the United Food and Commercial Workers for considering a strike on Albertsons, Vons and Ralphs at a time when county unemployment is at 10.2 percent, a record number of people...

Charging that management is “stonewalling,” union grocery workers in Southern California have issued a 72-hour notice cancelling their contract extension, paving the way for a strike. Eight months of negotiations between seven United Food and Commercial Workers locals representing 62,000 workers and management of supermarket chains owned by Kroger, Safeway and Supervalu have been hampered by disagreements over health care contributions. The union has charged that management’s proposal would “bankrupt health plans and eliminate entirely health care access” for employees. ... “We returned to the bargaining table ready to compromise and make a deal that keeps our employers profitable but...

The union representing Southland grocery workers issued a 72-hour notice Thursday night canceling the grocery contract extension, paving the way for a strike. "We returned to the bargaining table ready to compromise and make a deal that keeps our employers profitable but protects the jobs of our members," said a statement from the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents workers at Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons. "Instead, we got more of the same stonewalling from management. They are unwilling to compromise and are more concerned about hoarding their billions in profits than reaching a fair deal for their employees. We...

(AP) LOS ANGELES -- Grocery workers across Southern California rejected a partial contract proposal and gave their union the right to strike if already stalled labor negotiations with three supermarket chains fail. Employees at Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons filed into fairground halls, hotels and sports arenas Sunday to cast their ballots. Union officials said later the measure authorizing a walkout overwhelmingly passed. A formal announcement was expected Monday. "We had a really, really high turnout," said Mike Shimpock, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers. "Our members were very motivated to send the companies a message it's not...

Los Angeles (AP) -- Three rival supermarket chains involved in labor contract talks with thousands of employees in Southern California said Wednesday they will each lock out employees if any of the chains becomes the target of a strike. The move by the grocers — Supervalu Inc.'s Albertsons, Kroger Co.'s Ralphs and Safeway Inc.'s Vons — follows a vote last week by employees of Albertsons to give union leaders the authority to call a strike. Under the markets' pact, if the union orders a selective strike against one of the chains, the other two would lock out employees within 48...

<p>KCAL 9 Breaking News just announced that Ralph's Grocery Store has pleaded guilty to illegal hiring of thousands of strike workers with phony identifications during the strike...</p> <p>More...</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Three major grocers have reached a new labor agreement with 19,000 supermarket workers in Northern California, averting a threatened strike and laying the foundation for a possible truce with thousands of other employees in San Francisco Bay area stores. Jack Loveall, the union leader who negotiated the tentative contract with Safeway Inc., Albertson's Inc. and Kroger Co., celebrated the agreement as a significant breakthrough for supermarket workers fighting management's cost-cutting efforts. "Our challenge from the start was to protect the superior wages and benefits (supermarket workers) have enjoyed for decades," Loveall said in a taped message...

<p>Even after winning significant wage and benefit concessions in a months-long labor dispute in Southern California, the nation's three largest traditional supermarket chains will carry higher employee costs than does their nemesis: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.</p> <p>The contract that leaders of the United Food and Commercial Workers union agreed to put to a vote this weekend would give Kroger Co., Albertsons Inc. and Safeway Inc. the right to lower pay for new workers and limit the amount the grocers must put toward employee health insurance, according to people on both sides of the dispute who are familiar with the contract. After a two-day vote, 86% of grocery workers who cast ballots approved the contract, the union said Sunday.</p>

Business: NewsLast modified Sunday, February 29, 2004 9:40 PM PST Analysis: Stores are winners in strike settlementBy: EDMOND JACOBY - Staff WriterIn spite of efforts to put the best possible face on the settlement that has ended the nation's longest and most bitter grocery strike, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the labor movement can find little solace in it. While the three chains with whom they fought tooth-and-nail for 20 weeks ---- Safeway, Inc., the parent of Vons, Albertson's, Inc., and Kroger Co., which owns Ralphs ---- lost mountains of cash during the strike that began...

LOS ANGELES – Negotiators for three supermarket chains and grocery clerks reached a tentative contract agreement Thursday, creating hope that the longest supermarket strike in U.S. history would end and send 70,000 financially strapped employees back to work. Greg Denier, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, declined to disclose details of the agreement. The 4½-month strike inconvenienced millions of shoppers in Southern California and led to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for the three grocery chains, which had taken a stand against rising employee health costs. Officials with the union must submit the proposed...

Just announced with no further details on KFI radio AM 640 Los Angeles: an accord has been reached in the 5 month grocery store strike/lockout.

<p>On 15th consecutive day of talks, the 138-day grocery strike may be near an end.</p> <p>Union leaders and supermarket negotiators met all day Wednesday and late into the night at an Orange County hotel, ironing out the details of an agreement that could end the 138-day grocery strike.</p>

Wal-Mart getting boost from Lockyer By David Stirling No one has reported seeing Attorney General Bill Lockyer as a greeter at Wal-Mart stores. But from sightings of him on picket lines in front of Southern California supermarkets and partisan speeches at union strike rallies, he is advancing Wal-Mart's business dominance far more than its advertising can do. Over 120 days have passed since supermarket chains Albertsons, Ralphs (Kroger Co.), Vons and Pavilions (Safeway) informed their 70,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers-represented work force that -- due to pressures of Wal-Mart competition -- the company-paid portion of employee health care benefits...

LOS ANGELES -- More than 40 people were arrested Thursday during supermarket rallies in support of grocery clerks idled by a four-month strike and lockout. The granddaughter of late farmworker union leader Cesar Chavez, state Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, and an 86-year-old member of the Gray Panthers activist group were among those arrested during civil disobedience rallies involving clerks and about two dozen labor unions and community groups, organizers said. Some protesters linked arms and blocked the entrances at Vons and Pavilions stores. Twenty people were handcuffed and led away from the two stores in mid-city Los Angeles and...

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 6 — Four months into one of the biggest labor disputes in decades, the union representing 70,000 striking or locked-out Southern California supermarket workers is waging an increasingly confrontational — some say desperate — campaign to fend off cuts in members' health care benefits. A hundred union supporters shut down a Safeway in Santa Cruz for an hour and a half recently, dancing and chanting in a conga line through the store. Others disrupted a golf tournament in Pebble Beach on Friday, shouting slogans at two supermarket board members who were about to tee off. Labor leaders...

LOS ANGELES – Supermarket operators involved in a 4-month-old strike-lockout with Southern California grocery clerks rejected an offer from the workers' union Wednesday to have its members return to work immediately if the markets would agree to binding arbitration. In a joint statement issued shortly after union officials announced their offer, Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. rejected the union's proposal, calling it an effort to "shift the focus" away from the union's "inability" to negotiate a settlement. "Labor disputes are resolved by face-to-face negotiations with people familiar with the issues," the companies' statement said. "Only the parties to...

Just heard on the radio that the grocery union has proposed in a letter to the presidents of the supermarket chains that the dispute be resolved in binding arbitration. Part of the proposal is that the striking/locked-out workers go back to work in the stores while the arbitration is ongoing.