It's been a ticket to the middle class, no college degree required, for generations of Sacramentans: a job at Raley's or another unionized supermarket.
Now unrelenting pressure from nonunion grocers such as Wal-Mart threatens to change that.
With their labor contracts up for renewal, Northern California's big unionized grocery chains – Safeway, Raley's and Save Mart – are seeking wage and benefit concessions from 60,000 workers in the Central Valley and Bay Area.
The grocers say they need to ratchet down labor costs, particularly health insurance, to compete with the likes of Wal-Mart, Target and newcomer Fresh & Easy. They say their demands are reasonable and won't impoverish their workers.
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