California Unions Give 72-Hour Notice

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

LOS ANGELES — The seven Southern California locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union put local employers on 72-hour notice late Thursday that they are no longer willing to extend their contracts day to day and might strike sometime after Sunday evening.

The contracts, covering 62,000 clerks and meat cutters, have been extended since they expired March 6.

Bargaining sessions are scheduled to continue at least through Sunday. It was not clear whether the unions would cease talking once the 72-hour deadline is reached at about 7 p.m. Sunday evening.

Greg Conger, president of UFCW Local 324, told SN talks Friday were "a little more somber." If progress is made over the weekend, he added, "it will be in big chunks rather than small steps."

The three chains — Albertsons, Safeway and Vons — have been taking applications for several weeks to hire temporary workers in case of a strike.

Following the 72-hour notice, Supervalu-owned Albertsons issued a statement that said in part: "We are disappointed union leadership decided to take this step. We are still in active negotiations and have made progress during our talks over the past two weeks. We don't want a strike, and we hope to continue bargaining rather than continue to alarm our associates and our customers."

According to a statement from Kroger-owned Ralphs, "Even though the union leadership has canceled the contract extension, our stores are open for business [and] bargaining will continue, and we remain hopeful an agreement can be reached."

Safeway-owned Vons said the employers "intend to remain focused on the negotiation process and urge the unions to do the same."