SUPERVALU TO CONTEST TEAMSTER CLAIM

MINNEAPOLIS -- Supervalu here said last week it is preparing a response to a claim by a Pittsburgh-area Teamsters local that the company owes more than $4 million in pension liabilities resulting from the closing of a grocery distribution center in southwestern Pennsylvania.

, Teamsters Local 491, Uniontown, Pa., and secretary of the pension fund's six-member board of trustees, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

According to published reports, Supervalu last May negotiated a severance package for 309 workers at a Bell Vernon, Pa., warehouse that abdicated the company from making an annual contribution to the fund. The fund serves several Teamsters locals and is supported by 55 employers. The trustees claim that Supervalu's severance agreement violated federal pension rules and that the company should be liable for its share of the contribution to the fund.

Dragone said the trustees are prepared to take Supervalu to court to get the $4 million, according to published sources.

"Does somebody get hurt? Absolutely," Dragone was quoted as saying. "The other sponsoring employers and all participants and beneficiaries of the pension fund have to shoulder the burden of liability which Supervalu is attempting to avoid. The victim is the pension fund."