About 47,000 supermarket chain workers in Southern California voted in support of the union calling a strike if the companies refused to give a pay raise in a three-year collective bargaining agreement.
The workers of more than 500 supermarkets began voting on Monday, which closed Saturday night. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) reported that employees voted "overwhelmingly" to authorize the strike.
The result of the vote does not automatically trigger the strike. Instead, it authorizes the union to call a strike if Ralphs, Albertsons/Vons/Pavilions rejects the union's proposal for a $5 an hour raise and retain health insurance benefits.
According to the union, supermarkets have offered a raise of about 60 cents an hour.
The workers have presented in the negotiation "proposals that would raise wages fairly and improve store conditions to reflect the needs of workers in a pandemic and post-pandemic world," the UFCW local 770 unions said in a statement.
The possibility of a strike has been latent since the previous collective contract expired on March 7.
Ralphs warned in response that the possibility of a strike "creates unnecessary concern for our associates and communities when we should come together in good faith to negotiate solutions and compromise."
The Ralphs supermarket chain said its proposal includes wages of more than $141 million over the next three years, without increasing health care costs for workers.
Ralphs also reported that its median wage for workers is $19 per hour.
In another communication, the union clarified that "more than 10,000 UFCW 770 employees infected with COVID, many more have lost co-workers, friends, and family. In addition, supermarket employees are overworked, underpaid, and undervalued, while grocery companies rack up huge profits — Kroger alone made $4 billion in profit in 2021."
