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.
Some workers, like 15-year Ralphs veteran Kacey Rigby, say wages are not keeping up with rising prices. Rigby says rents an apartment in El Cajon for $1,200 a month but 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...
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