LOS ANGELES — Thousands of grocery workers in central and southern California have voted to authorize their union to call a strike against several major supermarket chains as contract negotiations are set to resume this week.
About 47,000 workers from hundreds of Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions have voted since last week and the results were announced Sunday.
The potential strike would involve grocers, meat cutters, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians represented by seven local residents from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
There was no immediate strike. The union said talks would resume on Wednesday and if negotiations collapse again it would decide what steps to take next.
Negotiations with Ralphs, owned by Kroger KR, +0.44%, and Albertsons ACI, -7.90%, owners of the Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions businesses, ended without an agreement before their final three-year contracts expired on March 6 .
The union said the next day that the companies’ wage proposal amounted to a 60-cent increase, which was “shockingly low” and well below workers’ living costs. Among other things, the employees demanded a pay rise of $5 an hour.
“Both companies have refused to agree to any expansion of in-store safety committees and have yet to negotiate meaningful health and welfare benefits,” United Food and Commercial Workers said in a statement.
The union said it stressed the essential role of food workers during the coronavirus pandemic on the final day of negotiations.
The union said bargaining committee member Erlene Molina, a Ralphs employee, told company negotiators: “We’ve seen people behaving like it’s the end of the world, but we couldn’t stay home. We knew we had a duty to our community, so we showed up every day.”
The grocery chains did not immediately comment on the strike approval on Sunday.
The Los Angeles Times reported that a statement from Ralphs last Monday said the vote “causes needless concern for our employees and communities at a time when we should come together in good faith to negotiate in good faith to… to find solutions and compromises. At Ralphs, our focus remains on closing a deal with UFCW.”
Albertsons Companies said in a statement last week that the goal of the negotiations is “to provide our employees with a competitive total compensation package that includes wages, healthcare, benefits and pensions.”
“We are committed to working together to ensure we reach an agreement that is fair to our employees, good to our customers, and allows Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions to remain competitive in the Southern California marketplace,” the statement said .
The union has not yet reached agreements with other supermarket chains, including Gelson’s, Stater Bros. Markets and Super A.
Employees at Ralphs, Vons, Pavilions and Albertsons voted to authorize a strike in 2019, but the deals were ultimately reached without a strike.
A strike and lockout in 2003-04 forced nearly 70,000 food workers in Southern California to picket for more than four months.