Catherwood LibraryILR School

Clearly, grocery chains and their workers learned a lesson in 2004, when management and labor at Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons approached contract negotiations with intractable positions on healthcare and wages. Back then, stubbornness on both sides led to a 141-day strike and lockout that cost the chains an estimated $1.5 billion and employees millions in lost wages. The new contract shows that the grocery chains now understand they can't just ignore workers' demands on healthcare and wages, and that the 65,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers has figured out that it too must acknowledge today's economic realities.