By Michele Chandler. (Excerpt) While unionized grocery employees in Southern California have reached a contract agreement, the uncertainty is just beginning for Bay Area grocery workers, who are girding for talks once their labor agreement expires in the fall.

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Local union officials expect an attempt to drastically scale back health care benefits, the central issue in the bitter Southern California conflict that kept 70,000 unionized workers off the job more than four months and led to an estimated $2 billion in losses for Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger.

Leaders of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union held up the dispute as a national bellwether in their fight to preserve affordable health insurance for unionized workers. While the new contract includes a two-tier system giving lesser pay and benefits to new hires, the union claimed victory. "We went on strike to protect affordable health care, preserve our pensions and assure job security, and we achieved all three of those principles,'' union spokeswoman Ellen Andreder said.

The grocers prevailed, other experts say. "Both sides lost in important ways, but the union did lose more,'' said Ruth Milkman, chairwoman of the University of California Institute for Labor and Employment in Los Angeles.

Some labor experts consider grocery employees to be anomalies, part of an increasingly small group of workers receiving fully paid employer health benefits at a time when medical costs are rising dramatically and both sides are shouldering more of the cost. Others point fingers at California's supermarkets, criticizing their zeal to pare labor costs to compete with discounters including Wal-Mart that are preparing to invade their territory and employ lower-paid, non-union workers.

Whatever the opinion, Bay Area grocery workers expect a fight when their contracts expire in September. To read entire article click here: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/8084229.htm

Source: Mercury News