Unions Urge Rejection of Market Offer : Labor: The stage is set for a strike at chains from San Diego to Bakersfield.

Southern California’s supermarket labor dispute moved a step closer to a strike Tuesday night when the presidents of 10 union locals voted to urge their members to reject a final contract offer by six major chains.

About 73,000 retail clerks and 7,000 meat cutters from San Diego to Bakersfield will vote on whether to accept the offer at meetings scheduled today and Thursday at a variety of Southland locations.

A vote to reject, which is anticipated in light of Tuesday night’s recommendation, will set the stage for a strike by the United Food and Commercial Workers at 800 markets as soon as midnight Thursday, union spokesmen said.

Workers voted overwhelmingly last week to authorize union presidents to call a strike at their discretion. Thus the union would have the option of using a membership rejection as negotiating leverage against the chains--Ralphs, Vons, Albertson’s, Alpha Beta, Lucky and Stater Bros.--rather than immediately calling a strike. Officials declined to discuss scenarios Tuesday night.

“A strike is quite likely now, unless something dramatic occurs,” said Bob Bleiweiss, a spokesman for the 10 union locals. “We are very disappointed.”

“Disappointed, yes. Not surprised,” said David Willauer, a spokesman for the Food Employers Council, which represents the six market chains. “They’ve been unwilling to negotiate. We made a damned good offer.”

Willauer said he thinks there is still a chance employees might ratify the proposal, despite the union’s recommendation, if “every employee goes to every meeting and takes a good hard look at this” offer.

The talks began to sour Monday when the chains rejected revised contract proposals from the union, calling them, in Willauer’s words, “incredibly unjustified.”

The union then demanded that the markets present a final offer by Tuesday afternoon. The markets agreed.

There was speculation that the offer might be further negotiated Tuesday night, but that possibility evaporated when the union presidents found the latest proposal to be “atrocious,” Bleiweiss said.

There were indications that for all the rhetoric that swirled Tuesday, neither the supermarkets nor customers seemed to be anticipating a strike.

Thomas G. Hill, senior vice president for Orchids Paper Products in La Palma, said supermarkets normally buy about two weeks’ worth of extra inventory when they expect an extended walkout.

This time, he said, there has been no such buying.

“We have had no indication at all they they (grocers) are gearing up for a tough fight,” said Hill, whose firm supplies such products as toilet paper, napkins and paper towels to all major supermarket chains in Southern California.

Likewise, at a Ralphs store in Fountain Valley, there has been no panic buying, said Timothy Garry, an assistant manager. He said there has been only a slight increase in sales of toilet paper, bottled water and other household staples.

“It’s not like it was three years ago,” Garry said, referring to down-to-the-wire negotiations on the last retail clerks contract in 1987, which concluded with 10-hour strikes by two locals.

The 1987 contract expired on Sunday night. Union officials, who had been authorized last week by members to call a strike, agreed to temporarily work under the lapsed contract and keep negotiating.

Wages do not appear to be a prime issue in the dispute. The markets have offered undisclosed increases in hourly wages over the next three years. Issues of health benefits and job security are more difficult to resolve, sources said. Included are questions such as more guaranteed hours for part-time workers, reduced pension contributions for entry-level clerks and increased use of non-union vendors.

Supermarket clerks now earn between $4 and $13.05 an hour. Meat cutters earn from $9.31 to $14.33 an hour.

Times staff writers Gilbert Reza and Stuart Silverstein contributed to this story.