“More than a decade after launching the longest major supermarket strike in the nation’s history, union representatives for Southern California grocery store workers are back at the bargaining table. This time, there’s a third party in the room: a $15 minimum wage.
California’s schedule of steady increases to the wage floor, which will boost that wage to $15 an hour by 2022, is doing some of the work for the seven unions as they seek their fourth contract with the Ralphs and Albertsons chains since the epic 143-day strike that brought the region’s supermarkets to their knees in 2003-2004.
But the two big chains, which include Safeway, Vons and Pavilions stores, are looking to offset rising pay in other ways. That is likely to be the basis for any new confrontation. ‘They are offsetting the cost of the minimum wage, they are trying to find ways to get around it,’ said Rick Icaza, the president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 770.
The starting wage for a worker at the two chains is $10.10, just over the current state minimum. The companies have proposed a raise of 10 cents per worker over the next three years and cuts to holiday pay; they also want to make it harder for entry-level employees to reach the highest pay grade, union officials said.
On June 20, 47,000 clerks, meatcutters, and merchandise stockers will have the chance to vote on whether to authorize a strike. [….]
Wages for clerks, baggers and everyone in between have actually declined after adjusting for inflation, hitting $28,964 per Los Angeles worker on average, down from about $31,175 per year in 2005.
The food industry, meanwhile, is growing. In 10 Southern California counties — from Imperial and San Diego north to San Luis Obispo and Kern — giant chains and independents are fighting over a market that is more than twice as big as the next largest, the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, Flickinger said. Since the strike was resolved, employment has increased by 25% in Los Angeles locations.
But the new workers are signing up for jobs with fewer perks and dwindling hours. [….] ‘Grocery store jobs look much more like fast-food jobs than they used to,’ said Chris Tilly, director of the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. ‘Lower pay, fewer benefits, more people part-time.’” [….]
The full article from the Los Angeles Times is here.
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