Local officials, organizers, and workers gathered outside of Ralphs on Carrillo Street on Tuesday afternoon with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 770 union to hold a demonstration and ask for a fair contract. Workers’ contracts at Ralphs, Albertsons, and Vons expired March 3, 2019, and employees have been working without one since. The two sides have been working to negotiate a new contract but have not reached an agreement.
Just last week, 96 percent of union members voted to authorize a strike if need be to achieve the desired outcomes for their contract. However, most union members hope contract disputes can be resolved and a strike avoided. Several signs at yesterday’s demonstration read, “I don’t want to strike, but I will.”
Brenda Sanchez, who’s worked at Ralphs for 32 years, since she was 15 years old, said she remembers a time when there were fair wages for everyone in the store. Now, she says, the struggle of making ends meet goes beyond Ralphs’ employees and that she sees it with her customers, too. “I see the struggle in my customers putting things away when they don’t have enough [money to pay for them],” she said. “It’s time to tell corporations enough is enough,” she said.
