SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Grocery strike enters third day

Grocery store clerks in Ohio and two other states also went on strike.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Thousands of Southern California grocery clerks began their third day on the picket lines today with no sign of a new labor contract, while clerks in three other states also began a strike.
The Southern California strike affects 70,000 unionized workers at three supermarket chains who have vowed not to return to work until they receive a contract with health benefits they can approve.
A contract dispute over health-care benefits also led more than 3,000 Kroger grocery clerks in West Virginia and others in a handful of stores in Ohio and Kentucky to vote to strike Monday. Late in the night, union workers at 44 Kroger stores in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky went on strike.
Those stores were closed Monday night and will remain closed until the labor dispute is settled.
"Kroger will not operate those 44 stores for the duration of the work stoppage, although store pharmacies will remain open so the customers can have their prescriptions filled," said Archie Fralin, a spokesman for Kroger's mid-Atlantic region in Roanoke, Va.
Benefit cuts at issue
West Virginia grocery store workers said they are concerned about cuts to their benefits even though Kroger offered hourly pay raises of 20 to 25 cents per hour this year and in 2005, along with lump-sum payments of $300 to $500 in 2004 and 2006.
"What happens in Southern California will shape what happens in other areas," said Greg Denier, spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers national office. "Southern California is leading the nation in this fight."
Officials on both sides of the California strike did not expect labor contract negotiations, which stalled on the issue of how much workers should contribute to fund their health benefits, to start up again in the immediate future.
To manage, the Southern California chains -- Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Albertsons Inc. -- relied on store managers and replacement workers to drive supply trucks, restock shelves and ring up purchases to keep the nearly 900 stores open for a diminished flow of customers.
Stores affected
But Monday the striking workers slowed the flow of goods to hundreds of stores from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. The strike forced some stores to scale back their hours.
About 10 workers picketed a Vons in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, handing out fliers to customers. Inside the store, a pair of cashiers checked out customers -- slowly.
Vons stores were handling the strike so well, they extended their post-strike hours of operation by three hours, said spokeswoman Sandra Calderon.
Calderon declined to say how much money the chain has lost since the strike or by how much customer traffic has dropped.
Officials from Ralphs and Albertsons did not immediately return phone calls Monday.
Meanwhile, Teamster officials said Monday that the union, which represents warehouse workers and tractor-trailer drivers, was preparing to expand its support of the grocery workers' strike as early as next week, a move that would further squeeze the supermarket chains' ability to supply their stores.
"That really affects the companies, big time," said Jim Santangelo, president of the Teamsters Joint Council 42 in El Monte.
Teamster had already agreed not to cross the picket lines.