Some 70,000 grocery workers, organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), are on strike at more than 850 stores in Southern California that belong to a few grocery chains.

Now entering their fourth month on strike, UFCW grocery workers here are hanging tough. “We’ve had our strike pay cut and most have had their health benefits eliminated,” said Becky Jones, a cashier with 26 years at Ralphs.

Jones and 20 other strikers were walking the picket line in front of Albertsons January 9. Se and others noted that most shoppers continue to honor their picket lines.

The grocery strike began October 11 after Vons, a division of Safeway, refused to budge in the talks. The following day Ralphs and Albertsons, which bargain jointly with the union, locked out their workers. By a 97 percent margin the union’s membership rejected the companies’ offer, which called for $1 billion worth of health-care cuts, a wage freeze for the first two years of a three-year contract, and a substantially lower pay and benefit scale for new hires.

On December 19 negotiations ended after the grocery bosses rejected a proposal from the union that included cuts that would reduce health-care costs for the chain by $350 million.

In what it called a “good faith effort” to resolve the strike, the union also pulled its pickets at warehouses owned by the three grocery chains. Some 8,000 Teamsters had been honoring the UFCW picket lines since November 24.

On January 2 the union filed suit against Ralphs for hiring 50 to 100 union workers under false names and Social Security numbers. UFCW officials told the Los Angeles Times that if Ralphs hires back workers the lockout could be ruled a selective layoff, making other workers eligible for unemployment benefits. The union has also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

While the strikers face increased financial hardship, the supermarket bosses are taking big hits to their bottom line. Safeway took an estimated $496 million loss in sales in the fourth quarter. Merrill Lynch reportedly said it “expects the chains to ‘shrug off’ the continued short-term earnings damage from the strike and for their stocks to ‘bounce’ on an agreement,” according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

UFCW Local 770, the largest of the striking locals, announced several union activities for January. They include a rally on January 17 at the Inglewood Forum, a Martin Luther King birthday rally on January 19, an event on January 20 sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers, and a benefit showing of the film Salt of the Earth for January 22.  
 
 
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