Supermarkets, Grocery Clerks Reach Deal

"I'm hoping they'll let us get back to work," the single mother said. "We still have to vote on it."

The strike targeted Albertsons, Kroger Co. and Safeway, affecting 859 stores throughout southern and central California. Sympathetic shoppers flocked to smaller chains and specialty stores to avoid picket lines.

Negotiations had been deadlocked over the cost and scope of health benefits and a proposed two-tier wage system for future employees.

Workers currently pay no premiums for full health coverage. In a December contract offer, the companies sought worker contributions of $15 a month for family coverage by 2005.

Employees are paid an average of $15 an hour and most do not work full time. The companies' earlier proposal offered no raises, while the union, in a three-year proposal, sought hourly increases of 30 cents in the first year and 35 cents in each of the next two years.

Union leaders framed the dispute as a national bellwether in the fight to preserve affordable health insurance for the working class.

However, some saw the clerks as low-skilled workers who had enjoyed free health benefits for too long. Others put the blame on the supermarkets, criticizing their move to cut labor costs to compete against Wal-Mart and other non-unionized, big-box supermarkets.

Kroger owns Ralphs stores, while Safeway is the parent company of Vons and Pavilions.

The dispute became the longest-running strike in the history of U.S. supermarket labor but fell far short of the five-year strike by grape pickers in Delano during the 1960s - the longest in California history.

The agreement was forged during 16 consecutive days of secret talks that began Feb. 11 under the guidance of the federal mediator.

Union members initially struck only the two Safeway chains. Hours later, Ralphs and Albertsons locked out clerks, saying a labor action against one chain amounted to action against all three.

At the start of the dispute, stores had to cut back hours and scramble to train replacement workers.

Workers walked picket lines outside stores, encouraging customers to shop elsewhere. The Teamsters squeezed the chains further by refusing to cross the picket lines, forcing store managers to drive tractor-trailers from nearby streets to loading docks.

The union accepted millions of dollars in donations from other labor organizations around the country to keep its strike and hardship funds solvent.

Another dispute could develop later this year. The current grocery master contract covering some 30,000 northern California supermarket employees who work for the same three companies expires on Sept. 11.