WITH Southern California's supermarket chains and grocery union apparently making progress in their contract negotiations, the chances of a replay of the disastrous 141-day work stoppage in 2003-04 may be diminishing. After more than six months of negotiations between the United Food and Commercial Workers and Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, differences on wages and pension issues reportedly have narrowed, though hurdles remain, especially on health insurance. For the workers, the risks of another walkout would be enormous. They lost big four years ago, and they have far fewer resources to draw on than the big chains. It's a classic David-and-Goliath situation, and Goliath does not seem to be in a generous mood.Labor strife is fairly new to the Southern California grocery industry. Before 2003, the region's union contracts were among the best in the nation, providing pay and benefits that allowed non-college-educated workers to enjoy a decent standard of living, including excellent health insurance coverage. Today, however, the contracts in Southern California are among the worst in the country, with dramatically reduced health benefits and a two-tier wage and benefit structure that sharply divides longtime employees from newer ones.
This decline mirrors a broader power shift in labor/management relations, especially in the private sector. In 1973, about 24% of all U.S. workers in the private sector were union members. Today, the percentage is 7.4. The number is not much higher in Southern California — 8.9% in the five-county region.
The supermarket industry, especially in Southern California, was a latecomer to union bashing. The region's rapid population growth meant steadily expanding demand for groceries, and the big supermarket chains enjoyed a huge share of the market — 57% as recently as 2002. Unionized for more than half a century, the industry had an unbroken record of labor peace going back 25 years. With all the major chains operating under a contract specifying uniform pay and benefits for workers, competition was based on service and quality, not on squeezing labor.
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