Discounter’s Drivers Back Strike

Teamster truck drivers at 99 Cents Only Stores voted Tuesday night to authorize a strike after failing to get an initial contract with the City of Commerce- based discount merchant.

A strike by the 65 union drivers, which would hit the retailer’s 153 stores in Southern California at the peak of the holiday shopping season, could start any day, said Paul Kenny, secretary-treasurer of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 630.

Kenny said he was pessimistic that the company’s final offer, expected Thursday, would be enough. “If it’s not what the drivers want, I’ll go ahead and pull them,” he said.

The extent of any disruption from a strike is unclear because the company already uses some nonunion contract drivers who probably would keep working.

Kenny said the union was prepared to pay the drivers $475 a week in strike pay -- more than they typically earn at work -- for at least six months.

The strike vote kicked off a joint campaign by the Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers to organize workers at all levels of the chain, from cashiers to warehouse forklift drivers.

“At this point, the only way I could stop this thing is if the company would meet with myself and some officials from the UFCW,” Kenny said Tuesday.

Company officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Union officials have said they believe that 99 Cents Only will be more vulnerable to public pressure than Arkansas-based discount giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has resisted both unions for years. The unions represent retail and warehouse workers at major grocery chains.

Last January, the Teamsters won a foothold in 99 Cents Only when 80 truck drivers at its main distribution center in City of Commerce voted to join. Despite nine months of on-and-off negotiations, however, the two sides have not come close to an agreement. In the meantime, 15 of the drivers have been laid off and replaced by contract drivers, Kenny said.

If no deal is reached by mid-January, a year after the election, the employees can start a process to decertify the union. Kenny said he thought the company was running out the clock. In a letter to Kenny last week, newly named Chief Executive Eric Schiffer said he was “anxious” to set up a meeting but was too busy at the moment.

The drivers earn between $10.50 and $14 an hour with no vacation time or sick days and poor benefits, Kenny said. The union has asked for annual raises of $1 an hour for the lowest-paid drivers, while the company offered 15 cents an hour per year, he said. The union also proposed bringing the drivers into the Teamsters’ health and pension plans.

The company refused another union demand: that it promise to be “neutral” during organizing campaigns at its stores and distribution centers.

Founded by a college dropout, the often-imitated company grew rapidly to more than 200 stores but ran into trouble this year when its main distribution center failed to keep up with demand and sales slumped.

At the same time, founder and then-CEO David Gold was hospitalized with heart problems, and it became clear that the company did not have an adequate succession plan.

When the company made the bad news public in June, its stock plummeted to $14.10 from $20.48 in a single day. It closed Tuesday at $14.94, down 25 cents.

Many of the losers in the stock plunge were company employees, who get stock options in lieu of a retirement plan.