IRVINE, Calif. (AP) -- Theresa Volk shopped at three different stores in the past week to get the groceries she needed before giving up and crossing a striking clerks' picket line.þþ``I've been going out of my way to go to stores. But I'm spending too much money going to all these different stores,'' Volk, 41, said as she walked past picketers at Ralphs with two shopping carts filled with groceries.þþAs the clerks' strike rolled through its second week with no new negotiations planned, many shoppers said they were frustrated by the lack of progress in contract talks and tired of running around town.þþClerks from three chains -- Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Albertsons Inc. -- went on strike or were locked out of stores from San Luis Obispo to San Diego on Oct. 11 in a contract dispute involving health care and other issues.þþNeither side is negotiating and no talks have been scheduled. The United Food and Commercial Workers union sued the supermarket chains Thursday for failing to pay picketing workers wages they claimed are owed under state law.þþOne lawsuit claimed the chains should have included vacation and sick pay in the striking workers' last paycheck and the second suit alleged that those who showed up for work were due ``reporting time pay'' equal to two to four hours' wages. Both were amendments to a case filed last week by the union that alleged workers were locked out without proper warning.þþRalphs spokesman Terry O'Neil said the three companies had not seen the lawsuits and declined to comment.þþSome shoppers who have crossed picket lines said they sympathized with the workers but were desperate for groceries. Others said workers were being unreasonable.þþVolk said she saw a full-page newspaper ad taken out by the chains that said workers were being asked to pay $5 a week for individual health care coverage and $15 a week for families. Union officials have disputed the ad, saying workers would have to pay up to $95 a week by the end of the proposed three-year contract to maintain current coverage.þþ``I can sympathize with their situation. But I really don't think they have a clue as to the cost of health care,'' said Volk, a licensed pharmacy technician who does not have employer health care. ``Asking them to pay part of their premium is not too much.''þþTempers on both sides of the picket lines have flared.þþIn Irvine, about 50 miles south of Los Angeles, police took a report about a man who allegedly waved a gun at locked-out Ralphs employees and another about two men punching a picketer. In Chula Vista, the California Highway Patrol arrested two striking supermarket clerks for allegedly beating a replacement worker with a bat.þþ``We have had a very clean picket line,'' said Lori Marrugo, 44, a clerk in Irvine, who has worked for Ralphs for 25 years. ``We're not slashing tires, fighting, doing some of the stuff you have heard about. For 20 years, they have drummed in my head be nice to the customer.''þþ``When this is over, and it's going to be over some time, you want your customers to come back.''þþ
Source: NY Times
