New grocery contract is not in the bag

One of the signal new delights Santa Barbara offered me when I arrived here from New York City was...Von's. Von's was a revelation! — a supermarket with wide aisles, capacious carts, and checkers and baggers who were helpful, cheerful, attentive and and unfailingly polite. What a happy change from cramped New York markets and the even more cramped attitude of their personnel.

I take Von's for granted now — and Ralph's, and Albertson's — and I've been taking the checkers and baggers and stockers for granted too. But no more.

Now I know something about the stress they're under, as an extended period for contract negotiations is set to end at midnight tonight, and at issue again is the appallingly unfair "two-tier" system the employers imposed on their workers as the last contract dispute was finally settled, three years ago.

Two-tier system severely penalizes new hires

During the last contract battle — which resulted in a 4 1/2 month work stoppage as members of seven Southern California locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers [UFCW] went on strike and the three major supermarket chains closed their doors "from Bakersfield to the Mexican border" — the Big 3 cried poverty.

The union members — 65,000 of them — finally accepted a deal in which veteran employees continued to receive pay increases (but in the non-cumulative form of bonuses) and health benefits for themselves and their families; but new hires were brought in at a significantly lower pay scale, and were forced to wait anywhere from a year to 18 months before any health benefits at all kicked in.

The result? Under the old contract, close to 98% of workers had health care coverage; under the two-tier system, only ±50% do. In other words, approximately one-half of the stores' employees are now in the second tier. Instead of promising a stable, middle-class job, the grocery chains are making second-class citizens out of its new hires — many of whom simply don't stick around. There is hardly any incentive to: no health care, no pension, and pay that is in some cases only 5¢ above minimum wage.

Increased employee turnover means higher training costs, and an inevitable fall-off of service to customers. In the long run, it can't be a good strategy for the employers. And it is a bad one for our communities.

Stores showing record profits

Pleading poverty may have worked the last time, but how can the three chains square their employee squeeze with what can now be seen as record profits — and record compensation for their CEOs? Last time the Big 3 cited increasing competitive pressure from other chains, pressure which simply didn't materialize. We don't know what their negotiating stance is this time around (neither side has gone public with the specifics), but the old arguments just don't work.

"No news is good news"

Yesterday I asked the check-out lady at my local Von's whether she'd heard anything about how the negotiations were proceeding. She hadn't, but then added, in that cheerful way I've come to know, "No news is good news."

We'll know better at 12:01 tonight whether her optimism is justified.

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You can find more information about the dispute at the Los Angeles Times (do a search on UFCW) — though there is surprisingly little reporting on the subject. And for the union's point-of-view, as well as action items for demonstrating support of the workers, go to http://respectufcw.com/.

Meanwhile, you can give your custom to Gelson's or Costco, both of whom came to reasonable agreements with the union some time ago.