Some bad news - which I did sort of predict

The strike by supermarket workers in southern California about which I posted on January 6 is apparently over after a bitter 4-1/2 month struggle, reports the New York Times. Workers had struck two Safeway-owned chains (Vons and Pavilions) over health care and pension issues; two other chains, Ralphs (owned by Kroger's) and Albertsons, locked out their workers and pooled resources with Safeway, the better to battle - and hopefully break - the union.

(Interestingly, secondary boycotts are illegal and sympathy strikes can be. Apparently "sympathy" lockouts and collusion by corporations aren't.)

Officials knowledgeable about the negotiations said the union had agreed to a lower wage tier for new workers. These officials said that the companies had pressured the union into agreeing to have newly hired workers pay some weekly premiums for their health insurance, which is a departure from the policy with current workers, who pay no premium. In addition, these officials said, the union agreed in large part to the companies' demand to freeze their contributions to the health plan for current workers. But these officials said the union achieved its objective of persuading the companies to set aside their demand for a separate health and pension fund for future employees.

In short, especially considering that with normal turnover in a few years most workers will be in that lower-benefit tier, basically the workers lost. Follow the link to my previous post and note what I said there. It still stands.