All appeared normal inside the Ralphs store in Hillcrest Friday afternoon. But by Saturday, employees inside the store may be outside, walking a picket line.
“It’s just very frustrating because it’s been since March… we’ve had 21 bargaining sessions and our members just want to get a deal done,” said Brent Beltran, communications director for United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 135.
The stores in question are Albertsons, which owns Vons and Pavilions and Kroger, which owns Ralphs.
Beltran said store management have been needlessly dragging their feet.
“They’ve been slow rolling it, and it’s been very difficult for us to get something done because of going through that process,” he said.
We reached out to both Kroger/Ralphs and Albertsons/Vons for comment. As of our deadline, we hadn’t heard back from Ralphs.
But Albertsons sent a statement:
“Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions in Southern California remain committed to productive discussions with the UFCW. We respect the rights of workers to engage in collective bargaining and are negotiating in good faith to achieve a balanced agreement that rewards our associates, benefits our customers and is sustainable for our company in the competitive grocery industry. Allegations of unfair labor practices are without merit. Our focus remains on providing exceptional service to our customers and fostering a positive working environment for our associates. All Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions in Southern California are open and ready to continue serving our communities.”
Unfair labor practices — that’s the main issue at hand in these negotiations.
“Most of it has to do with illegally surveilling our members. They’re not supposed to follow members around when they’re talking with union reps … Another one is that they have not allowed certain members to wear union garb,” said Beltran.
In addition to the labor practices portion, Beltran said they’re also negotiating over a new contract. These negotiations are happening throughout Southern California, basically from Bakersfield to the border. 7,000 of those workers are in San Diego County.
Beltran said they’ll keep negotiating into Friday night if necessary, but by tomorrow, he said there will either be an agreement, or about 45,000 workers across Southern California will begin their strike.
