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A California man was fired from his job as a grocery store courtesy clerk after he was assaulted three times in four months. Austin Sherrell, 23, says he was assaulted three times since the new year and, after asking for worker’s comp, his hours were cut and then he was terminated from his position at Vons, a supermarket chain in Southern California and Nevada. His duties as a courtesy clerk included bagging groceries, collecting shopping carts and dealing with trash, which he was doing on January 19, when he encountered two alleged shoplifters behind the store. “I’m taking out the...

An E. coli outbreak led to a recall covering 22 states and 97,272 pounds of ready-to-eat salad sold at Domino's Pizza and a list of grocers that includes Walmart, Target, Aldi, Albertsons and Giant Eagle. The lettuce is the potential E. coli carrier in the salads made by New Jersey company Missa Bay, all of which are listed here. Missa Bay sold them to food distributors in Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Alabama, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. Distributors sold them to retailers and...

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...

California grocer labor talks ongoing, deadline passes Sunday September 18, 2011 10:49pm PDT (Reuters) - Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons remained in talks with the union representing 62,000 Southern California supermarket workers as the deadline for canceling their labor contract passed on Sunday evening. The United Food and Commercial Workers union on Thursday issued a required 72-hour notice of its plan to cancel its extended contract, a move that opened the door for workers to strike if an acceptable deal could not be reached. "Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons are still at the table with the union. Progress is being made,...

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...

Jury Awards Cal. Man $18M for Harassment LOS ANGELES (AP) - A jury has ordered The Vons Companies Inc. to pay more than $18 million in damages to a former employee who claimed the supermarket chain fired him after he filed a report accusing a female supervisor of sexual harassment. The Simi Valley jury awarded more than $16 million in punitive damages to James Stevens on Friday, two days after ordering Vons to pay the one-time inventory clerk $1.7 million for economic loss and emotional distress, said attorney Gloria Allred, who represented Stevens. Stevens, a Ventura County resident who worked...

VONS & PAVILLIONS grocery stores are hiring.

<p>Whatever the merits of the legal case California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is pursuing against the grocery stores involved in an ongoing labor dispute, his behavior has suggested that he is a partisan actor rather than a fair-minded advocate of justice. That's not good for the appearance of impartiality that is the foundation of California's legal system.</p>

Conservative Talk Show host Joe Crummey is taking calls concerning the latest news about the grocery store lock-out and strike. Union officials were in Los Angeles yesterday to discuss current negotiations. Joe Crummey believes the grocery store strikers are being misled by their Union. He suggests that workers re-read their contract. Page 12 of their contract says that workers get $4.04 (company paid insurance benefit per hour) for every hour they work. Mentions also that civil disobedience has now been suggested by a sympathetic union supporter.

Grocery Union Threatens Pickets Across U.S., Canada Tue Dec 16, 7:55 PM ET By Sue Zeidler LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Union leaders on Tuesday called for pickets of Safeway stores across North America in support of 70,000 Southern California grocery workers who have been out of work for two months in a contract dispute with Safeway and two other leading chains. Over the next few weeks, the United Food and Commercial Workers union said it would ask consumers not to shop at Safeway stores. Protests could also broaden to include acts of civil disobedience by supporting religious groups, a union...

Markets to close stores on Thanksgiving due to labor dispute ALEX VEIGA Associated Press LOS ANGELES - Doors will be closed Thanksgiving Day at nearly 860 Southern California supermarkets because of the labor dispute between three supermarket operators and some 70,000 striking or locked-out grocery clerks.The chains' stores - Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions and Ralphs - traditionally have opened for business for at least a few hours on Thanksgiving Day. They decided last week, however, not to open during the holiday. The stores will reopen Friday. (snip) The union turned up the pressure on the chains Monday by extending its picket...

Teamsters Join Calif. Supermarket Strike By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer EL MONTE, Calif. - The Teamsters union said Monday its members will stop delivering groceries to three Southern California supermarket chains where grocery clerks have been on strike or been locked out for more than a month. The move effectively shuts off supplies to Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons stores during the critical Thanksgiving shopping week. The action, taken after the striking clerks moved to expand their picket lines to regional distribution centers, was called a "silver bullet" by Jim Santangelo, president of Teamsters Joint Council 42 in El Monte....

POSTED: 7:06 a.m. PST November 10, 2003 UPDATED: 10:08 a.m. PST November 10, 2003 LOS ANGELES -- Several men, some brandishing bats, confronted picketers outside a strike-bound Albertsons market in Laguna Niguel, Calif., sending a 21-year-old man to the hospital, authorities said Monday. Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said five males showed up outside the market at 30241 Golden Lantern St. about 10:20 p.m. Sunday and taunted the strikers, challenging them to fight. Three of them carried bats and began beating a 21-year-old striker, Amormino said, adding that the assailants fled when a security guard fired shots in...

<p>Negotiators for supermarket chains will meet with representatives of grocery clerks today in talks arranged by federal mediators in an attempt to avert a possible strike that could begin as early as Saturday.</p> <p>More than 70,000 supermarket workers across Southern California have been voting this week on whether to authorize a strike against Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons and Vons' Pavilion[s] markets. The results of that voting will be announced this morning. Union leaders and company negotiators will then begin talks this afternoon at offices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. It will be the first meeting between the sides since a labor contract covering the workers expired Monday.</p>