(June 28, 2011-Los Angeles) — The seven Southern California unions of the United Food and Commercial Workers released the following response to today’s statement from Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons:

“Management claims that it took 42 days for union negotiators to respond to their health care proposal. This is a twisting of the facts.

“Here’s the truth:

“Managements’ proposal was a response to a union proposal made 47 days before that.

“Management only agreed to negotiate with grocery workers 12 days out of those 42 — and most of those sessions were spent dealing with a pension issue at a June 30 federal deadline, a deadline that would not have been a concern had management not stalled negotiations so far past the contract’s expiration.

“Full-time employees already pay more than $600 per month from their salaries for medical benefits. Management’s proposal would increase this amount while drastically decreasing benefits.

“Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons pay less today for employees’ health care than they did 10 years ago. Literally all increases in health care costs have been borne solely by workers. No industry in the United States has enjoyed this kind of ‘health care cost holiday’ like the markets have.

“The corporations that own Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons made $5 billion in profits last year alone and paid out $500 million in dividends to Wall Street and investors. These are some of the most profitable corporations in America.

“If management is truly concerned about timeliness of proposals, we challenge them to meet with us every single day going forward until an agreement is reached.

“They’ve stalled for too long. We are four months past the expiration of our contract, an expiration date they’ve known about for four years.”