Roughly 50,000 Southern California grocery workers have authorized a strike if negotiations over wage and health care benefits fail with Ralphs, Albertsons and Safeway-owned Vons and Vons Pavilions.
The final vote was tallied Wednesday by seven Southern California supermarket unions, including Local 324 in Buena Park. It impacts roughly 10,000 grocery workers in Orange County, union officials said.
The supermarkets are offering union workers a 10-cent per hour wage increase through 2018 and bonuses of 10 cents an hour and 15 cents an hour during that time. The stores will not fund health care beyond current levels, meaning that employees will have to contribute more or sacrifice coverage. The supermarkets also are not funding pensions at levels the unions are seeking and want to change the retirement age to 65 from 60.
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