Smart & Final workers walk off the job

More than 600 warehouse workers at two Smart & Final warehouses have gone on strike, protesting mass layoffs and what they believe are unfair labor practices.

Workers at the Riverside and City of Commerce facilities walked off the job June 20 and have remained so this week, according to multiple reports.

Relations between the workers and Grupo Chedraui, the Mexican company that owns Smart & Final, have deteriorated in the past year.

In May 2023, the grocery store chain announced it would close five Southern California warehouse-distribution centers and that all of the employees at those facilities would lose their jobs.

That announcement came shortly after workers at the City of Commerce facility voted to form a union and days before a union election was to be held in Riverside, the reports stated.