Pickets hopeful despite rejection

Alicia Robinson

Grocery store pickets were hopeful on Wednesday despite the

corporations’ rejection of a union offer to send employees back to

work in return for accepting a third party resolution of the nearly

four-month dispute.

In five press conferences held around Southern California, United

Food and Commercial Workers representatives proposed an immediate end

to the strike and lockout and asked the heads of Kroger, Albertsons

and Safeway to agree to a binding third-party decision in the labor

dispute, which began in October when the two sides could not agree on

healthcare benefits and other issues in contract negotiations.

Within hours of the press conferences, the stores issued a joint

statement rejecting the request and inviting the union back to the

bargaining table with a federal mediator, who has been negotiating

the dispute since November.

Picketing workers said a third-party decision maker was a good

idea and they were hopeful that the union’s announcement would result

in their returning to work soon.

“This is one of the first positive moves I’ve seen,” said Steve

Vass, a nighttime stocker at the 17th Street Ralphs store, who was on

the picket line at the Vons store down the street.

“I hope that it works out. I’m just not going to hold my breath,

knowing what’s happened in the past.”

Ralphs spokesman Terry O’Neil said store officials asked the

mediator to invite the union back to the bargaining table.

“We don’t believe it’s in the best interests of our company or our

employees to have a third-party arbitrator that is not familiar with

the issues decide the outcome,” O’Neil said.

At the Albertsons on Balboa Boulevard, picketing workers said they

weren’t surprised by the stores’ rejection because they expected an

initial refusal.

Despite that, Albertsons meat cutter Arnie Tiscareno and cashier

Sandy Crofton said they still think the deal could happen, and they’d

like nothing better.

“It would put us back to work,” Tiscareno said.

“Our customers would like that,” Crofton said. “They’re tired of

it, too.”

Under the union’s proposal, each side would submit its issues to

the arbitrator, who would make a final decision on the dispute.

Workers said they would expect the outcome to be equitable for both

sides.

“I think the food chains are out to break the union, is basically

what it comes down to,” Vass said. “I think whoever is arbitrating is

going to be fair.”

The union has staged a number of publicized protests, such as

blocking the entrance to a Vons store in Garden Grove and a “justice

pilgrimage” to the home of a Safeway executive in Alamo, Texas. But

some local workers said they have mixed feelings about the

effectiveness of those events.

Wednesday’s announcement was kept under wraps, even from union

members, until the press conferences. Holly Swedelson, a checker at

the Harbor Boulevard Albertsons, said pickets rushed to the TVs in a

nearby Kmart on Tuesday night to hear news about the next day’s

announcement.

“We were praying that they were going to say it’s done,” she said.

The pickets said they’d be ready to go back to work immediately if

they could. When they do return to their jobs, they don’t expect hard

feelings between workers and management, they said.

“This is our home,” Tiscareno said. “We’ve got to go back to it.”