Grocery Strike Would Affect Chatsworth

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Valley resident Ashley Schwartz, 22, a Ralphs cashier, is bracing herself for a possible grocery workers strike that would affect both her and her father—who is recovering from a battle with prostate cancer after 42 years of employment at Ralphs.

Health insurance benefits are at the center of the dispute between three large grocery chains and their workers.

Representatives of the three companies—Safeway (Vons), Albertsons and Kroger, the parent company of Ralphs—have walked out of contract talks with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW Local 770) over the cost of employee premiums for health care benefits. A members' vote to allow for a strike was held in April and two more are scheduled for yesterday and today. A vote to strike could lead to a 72-hour notice of a walkout and strike of more than 62,000 union members in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego counties. 

“I feel that if we let this go without a fight and they take these medical benefits away from us, what will come next?" Schwartz said, who works at the Ventura Boulevard store. "This is affecting people I care about, and I can’t see people being run over by these big corporations when I know how hard it is to work for a dollar."

Schwartz said she remembers how difficult it was for her family during the last strike, when her father, the sole breadwinner of the family, lost his modest income for several months. She said many Ralphs employees are barely scraping by on the wages they earn, and that deducting medical premiums from a part-time salary of $9 to $13 per hour is too much for many employees to bear. 

Her father, Michael Schwartz, 58, who is scheduled to return to work in September after recuperating from cancer surgery, said he is hearing frightening rumors about Ralphs potentially closing down, then reopening as Kroger, in order to become a nonunion store. He said he feels a lot of uncertainty about his pension, salary and health care benefits after being loyal to the company for so many years.

“I’m very blessed to have had great benefits and be employed consistently—it’s not a bad industry, but we aren’t making demands or talking about raises. We are just trying to keep what we have,” he said.

Ashley Schwartz said she had never been involved with the union previously, but when she found out that Vons and Albertsons were advertising to offer more money to "scab-laborers” than she is making after five years of employment, she said she had to do something. She said she finds it deeply troubling that even though the other stores are advertising for temporary workers in the event of a strike, Ralphs isn’t. She said she wonders if rumors regarding the chain closing and reopening as a nonunion store is true.

“At the time of this conversation, Ralphs has no plan to hire temporary workers, but of course that could change any time,” Ralphs vice president of marketing, Kendra Doyel, told Patch.

Doyel said negotiations have been ongoing, and that just because members vote does not mean there will be a strike. She said there have been several proposals sent back and forth with concessions on both sides, but as of Thursday afternoon, no agreement had been reached.

When asked about Ralphs reopening as a nonunion store, Doyel said, “That is not the plan, but I want to clarify, we do have a contingency plan in place should the workers go on strike.”

Doyel declined to share the details of that plan but said that the issue over health care premiums is necessary to allow the store to remain competitive with nonunion stores.

Doyel first said that Kroger is asking employees to pay $9 to $23 per week for health care, which is well below costs for other employees across the country, then added there will be some changes to the plan regarding out-of-pocket costs, but said Ralphs will pay 90 percent of the health care premiums.

When asked about the union’s claim of huge profits for Kroger's first-quarter earnings statement, Doyel said she was not at liberty to share the individual profit margins of Ralphs, but said Southern California profits are not robust and could be described as “flat at best.”

“Encino is a very good example of the competition we experience in Southern California," Doyel said. "We have to compete with Trader Joe's, Target, Walmart and Gelson’s, and that is actually what is contributing to the eroding of union jobs.”

Jackie Gitmed, a 35-year employee of Ralphs on Ventura Boulevard, said she feels the erosion of the middle class is at stake, and said if Kroger takes away workers' current health care benefits she is ready to strike, even though the last strike, she said, cost her $10,000. 

“People think that we’re spoiled, but most of the people don’t make much money, especially part-time employees. Our schedules change weekly, so it’s really hard to get any other work even if you’re only working 16 hours. I don’t feel appreciated at this moment,” Gitmed said.

Ashley Schwartz said she feels that another strike would only teach customers to become loyal to Trader Joe's and Gelson’s and be costly to the big supermarket chains.

“We want to get the word out to our customers ..." she said. "It’s not just where I work. I live here. This is my community, but we can’t talk about the issues on the clock, so I’ve been talking to customers outside the store on my own time and everyone I've spoken to was very supportive.”