SAN DIEGO _ Thousands of unionized grocery store workers have voted in favor of a new employment contract with major supermarket chains, preventing a strike that could have affected a large swath of the state.
Workers from Ralphs, Vons, Pavilions and Albertsons lined up at voting locations throughout Southern and Central California this week, culminating in a final count released Thursday.
Roughly 47,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union were eligible to vote on the three-year contract. Union members voted "overwhelmingly" in favor of approval, the union said, although specific numbers were not provided.
The union advised workers to vote yes on the pact after a lengthy negotiation process with the grocery stores that went into the early hours of last Sunday morning. Union members have been working under a three-year contract that expired March 3.
Todd Walters, the president of San Diego County's UFCW Local 135, which also covers Imperial County, said the contract was the best he's seen in decades.
The union negotiated for hourly wage increases of $1.55 to $1.65 over the next three years, depending on the position. Workers also get more money from their employers for pension and health care.
The new pact follows months of negotiations between the UFCW union groups and Ralphs, which is a division of Kroger Co., and Albertsons Companies, which owns Vons and Pavilions. In June, union members had voted to authorize a strike if talks failed.
The last time there was a grocery strike in Southern California was in 2003 when nearly 60,000 workers walked off their jobs for four months. It was the largest and longest supermarket strike in U.S. history. In 2011, the union came close to striking after setting a deadline then as it did this time around, but after marathon negotiations, supermarkets and union leaders were able to reach a deal.
Walters cited the good economy and community support as reasons for the grocery stores' willingness to negotiate on the deal.
"Unemployment is low and people can get other jobs," Walters said in an interview Monday. "But the community's support was a big part of this. A lot of people showed up at our rallies. Grocery workers are your neighbors. Working people in our community don't deserve to have to work three jobs to survive."
