IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Three of Southern California’s largest supermarket chains and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union are expected to return to the bargaining table this week.
The current contract between Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons and approximately 60,000 union members will expire March 2, according to a report originally published in The Press-Enterprise.
Both parties have been unable work out an agreement during the past fews months but will now have their first sit-down meeting during these negotiations.
Several meetings have been scheduled for February and the union hopes to add even more sessions, according to the report.
The union contract covers about 70 stores – approximately 6,000 workers – in Southern California. Stater Bros., the San Bernardino-based grocery store chain that is the largest private employer in the Inland Empire, usually conducts its own negotiations with the union.
In March 2004, both sides ended a 141-day dispute and lockout that ultimately cost all three chains an estimated $2 billion in sales. In 2011, both parties agreed to extend the contract, but only after six months of talks that included assistance from a federal mediator, according to the report.
