March 9th 2022: A grocery strike could soon be heading to Orange County as a contract with Orange Counties supermarkets and employees represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 770 has expired.
The supermarkets involved are Albertsons, Vons, Vons Pavilions, Ralphs as well as Stater Bros. Negotiations are on going but if no agreement is reached the union could schedule a strike vote by Friday.
Hopefully a deal can be reached because a strike would be bad for employees with lost wages as well as for the chains with lost income. A strike also would force many customers to seek out alternative food options instead of crossing the picket lines at the major supermarkets.
As a long time, Orange County resident, I remember the 2003 to 2004 strike that lasted an amazing 141 days which had the workers losing $300 million in lost wages and caused the supermarket chains to lose $2 billion in income.
I remember at the time having a prescription assigned to an Albertsons during the first few days of the strike and didn’t want to cross the picket lines. Upon arriving at the store, a picker said I was okay to pick up my prescription they just asked that I didn’t shop in the supermarket which I was fine with.
Hopefully a strike won’t happen as it would be bad for employees, customers and the companies themselves.
