Grocery workers in San Diego and Southern California are voting this week on whether to authorize a strike against Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions in a bid for higher wages.

From their comments inside their union hall Wednesday in Mission Valley, it isn’t looking good for the grocery chains.

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Some workers, like 15-year Ralphs veteran Kacey Rigby, say wages are not keeping up with rising prices. Rigby rents an apartment in El Cajon for $1,200 a month and is often worried she isn’t going to have enough money to keep a roof over her head.

“It’s scary. I shouldn’t feel like that,” said Rigby, 36, who works as a scan coordinator. She voted to authorize a strike Wednesday — along with every other worker The San Diego Union-Tribune spoke to — at the union hall.

United Food and Commercial Workers Union workers across Southern California voted during the first three days of this week but it won’t be until Monday that the result is announced. If a strike is authorized, it doesn’t mean workers immediately walk out — it just gives them the opportunity to do so if they decide negotiations aren’t going well. Union members last voted to authorize a strike in late June 2019 and approved a contract — without striking — roughly two months later.

Seeking higher pay, union leadership said it moved to authorize a strike vote after contract negotiations stalled with Ralphs, a division of Kroger, and Albertsons, which also owns Vons and Pavilions. Local 135 represents 13,000 workers across 70 stores in San Diego and Imperial counties. The grocery workers have been without a contract since March 6.

This possible strike is much bigger than just San Diego, with more than 47,000 workers represented by UFCW at 500 stores voting at the same time. By working together, it increases the unions’ bargaining power, said Todd Walters, president of UFCW Local 135.

Union leadership didn’t want to say what they were asking for, but workers in Mission Valley said the proposal is around a $2 an hour raise the first year and $1.50 more in the second and third year of the contract. The grocery chains are proposing a 60 cent an hour raise for each year of the contract.

“The wages on the table are a slap on the face,” said Tracy Rebello, a grocery clerk who has been with Ralphs for more than 30 years.

Rebello said she has a front-row seat to inflation, watching as food prices creep up in her store.

“Everything has gone up,” she said. “My wages haven’t.”

Ralphs said its offer would increase wages by $141 million over three years. They said a checker with five years of experience, who now earns an average $22.50 an hour, would see hourly wages increase 60 cents annually until 2024. It said its wage increases would mean most of its workers would make more than $50,000 a year.

Walters said grocery chains did well during COVID-19 lockdowns as people rushed to fill up on groceries (and toilet paper), as well as eat at home while restaurants were closed. Even into the pandemic’s second year, like last summer, grocery sales were 17 percent higher than they were in 2019, said an analysis by Bloomberg.

Workers at Albertsons’ stores and Ralphs, after negotiation by the union, were able to get an extra $2 an hour from mid-March 2020 to mid-June 2020. The “hero pay” was discontinued but there were efforts to bring it back in many communities.

The Long Beach City Council got involved by passing a law in 2021 that would have required grocery stores to pay an additional $4 an hour in “hazard pay” for four months. Cincinnati-based Kroger then closed two Long Beach stores, a Ralphs and Food 4 Less.

Idaho-based Albertsons has said in a statement the company’s goal is “to provide our employees with a competitive total compensation package of wages, health, welfare and pension benefits. We are committed to working collaboratively.”

Elsie Lewis, 58, a night manager at Albertsons, said she is prepared to go on strike because she doubted the grocery chains were willing to come up with a good offer.

“The companies are so stubborn,” she said.

Nearly 60,000 workers at Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions and Ralphs stores last walked off their jobs in 2003 in a labor action that lasted four months, making it the largest and longest supermarket strike in U.S. history.

A lot has changed since 2003. The share of union-run grocery stores has shrunk as they compete with nonunion stores, Costco, Walmart and Trader Joe’s. Union shops are also competing against grocery delivery services, also non-unionized, from Amazon and Walmart Plus. Burt Flickinger, the managing director of retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group, said the chains lost market share during the four months because customers found new places to shop.

From the workers’ perspective, a lot has changed, too: San Diego County’s inflation hit its highest point in 40 years — 8.2 percent — in January. Everything from housing to gas costs a lot more than the last time the union nearly went on strike.

In 2019, workers approved a contract that gave hourly wage increases of $1.55 to $1.65 over the next three years, depending on the position. Workers also got an additional 40 cents per hour toward health care, and 45 cents per hour for pensions over the next three years.

Ralphs says it pays workers an average hourly wage of $19 an hour. That’s above the average wage of $16 an hour for a grocery worker in California, said ZipRecruiter. However, the union and grocery analysts say it can be difficult to calculate averages because of the wide range of positions and the time workers stay at the same store, which tends to be longer for union workers.

Walters said another issue is the grocery stores are raising wages to get new and temporary employees as worker shortages persist, leaving some long-term workers with the same pay as new ones.

This strike was slightly different than past years with the union accusing the companies of unfair labor practices. They alleged to the National Labor Relations Board that there was illegal intimidation, including videotaping of workers at rallies and when they presented petitions to managers. The companies gave employees a one-time $100 bonus, which the union called a “bribe” to influence the negotiations. Kroger strongly denied the allegations as “trumped-up charges.”

Calling the strike an unfair labor practice strike allows unions the right to have targeted walkouts at selected stores. A strike over economic issues would require the entire workforce to walk out.

Negotiations are expected to resume next week.

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