Unionized grocery workers in Southern California began voting Friday morning on the latest offer from Ralphs, Albertsons and Vons.
The vote on the health-care proposal and whether to authorize a strike is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.
Union officials said the chains' health-care offer would force workers to spend almost half of their salaries to cover health costs. The grocery chains insist that the latest proposal would maintain most health-care expenses at their current levels and cost workers only $9 a week for single coverage or $23 for family coverage.
Tatanya Bryant was in Harbor City early Friday for a vote. The Albertsons employee said she will vote down the offer.
"Our representatives have met 53 times and we have no resolution yet," said Bryant.
The vote will continue through Saturday. Results are likely to be known Monday.
Grocers have already reached an agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770 on pensions, but health care and wages remain unresolved.
The grocery employees' previous contract expired March 6.
In 2003-04, a grocery workers strike and lockout dragged on for 141 days, wiping out the savings of most workers and costing supermarkets an estimated $1.5 billion.
The grocery chains are recruiting temporary replacement workers in response to the union’s threats to strike, according to Daymond Rice, spokesman for Von’s.
“We must prepare for the possibility of a strike,” Rice said in an e-mail statement. “We will run our stores on a ‘business as usual’ basis.”
If a settlement between the grocers and their employees is reached, the temporary recruits will not be hired, said Rice, who described the decision as a “defensive measure.”
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