The union representing more than 12,000 grocery store workers from the U.S.-Mexico border to Bakersfield voted Friday, July 25, to authorize a strike against supermarket chain Stater Bros. Markets.
No date has been set for a strike.
The decision by the United Food and Commercial Workers to authorize an unfair labor practice strike against San Bernardino-based Stater Bros. comes two weeks after the region’s largest grocery workers’ union agreed to a new a three-year contract with Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons Cos. and Cincinnati-based Kroger Cos.
The UFCW labor contract with Stater Bros. and other major supermarket chains in Southern California expired March 2.
While the labor contracts involving 45,000 workers with Albertsons and Kroger were settled July 11, talks have continued with the unionized Stater Bros., Encino-based Gelson’s Markets and Super A Foods, a family-owned supermarket chain based in Commerce that caters to Latino and Asian shoppers in the Los Angeles area.
Gelson’s and Super A Foods have historically gone along with the labor contracts negotiated by Albertsons, Ralphs and Stater Bros.
On July 25, the UFCW said in a statement that its members voted to authorize their bargaining team to call for an Unfair Labor Practice strike, protesting alleged labor violations by Stater during the negotiations. An Unfair Labor Practice refers to actions taken by employers or unions that violate the rights of employees or union members, as defined by labor laws.
“We’ve never had to take an Unfair Labor Practice strike vote at Stater Bros., but the company has changed,” UFCW said in a statement. “Since March, we’ve pushed Stater Bros. for real solutions to short staffing, unsafe conditions, and unfair wages, but all we’ve seen is disrespect of our rights as reflected in these ULP charges. “
A vote tally for the strike was not released.
A Stater Bros. spokesman could not be reached for comment on Saturday.
Also see: Stater Bros. lays off store clerks, a first for the 89-year-old chain
The next round of negotiations with Stater Bros., which union officials have said has been one of the toughest chains with which to bargain, begins on July 30 and 31.
Union officials have previously stated that the chain irked some of its members when it laid off store clerks earlier this year, a first for the 89-year-old chain.
The layoffs carried a sting for those who remembered the supermarket’s longstanding mission to never lay off an employee.
Jack Brown, who served as president and chief executive officer of Stater Bros. from 1981 until 2017, proudly boasted in an Orange County Register interview in 2016 that the company had never laid off an employee.
Even during the 2003-2004 grocery strike and lockout, Brown kept the stores open and accepted whatever agreement the union made with the other major supermarket chains in California. “It was doing the right thing for right reasons. The right thing was to continue to serve our customers and to keep our people employed,” he said at the time.
The pace of the talks between the UFCW and chains was briefly disrupted in late March when the federal mediator assigned to their negotiations was fired by the Trump administration. The mediator, Isael Hermosillo, was later hired back independently by the two sides to help in the discussions.
Jim Amen, president of Super A, recently told the Southern California News Group that negotiations with the UFCW were set to begin separately in late July with his company and Gelson’s at the union’s offices in Buena Park.
Stater Bros. could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday morning.