Nob Hill and Raley's shoppers in the Bay Area will have to navigate past striking workers starting Sunday after the union called a strike.
Union employees at 128 northern California supermarkets walked off the job over a contract dispute with the company. The main sticking point appears to be health care benefits.
Raley's owns 22 Nob Hill stores in the South Bay in addition to 10 Raley's stores in the East Bay.
Both sides had been meeting in San Francisco in hopes of averting the strike, but the talks were called off at 3 a.m. Sunday morning and a strike was called.
The union said in a statement that "by late on Saturday evening it had become obvious Raley's offer to extend the contract for an additional three days and return to the bargaining table" was a delaying tactic.
Raley's spokesman John Segale said that "it is unfortunate that after 15 months of talks and nearly 60 negotiation sessions, we were not able to agree on a new contract since it is clearly understood that we must reduce our operating costs to become more competitive against non-union retailers."
Raley's had set a midnight deadline to come up with a deal or they say they would impose the wage concession made in their "last and final" contract offer.
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John Seagle, a spokesperson for Raley's, said earlier in s all the stores will remain open in the event of a strike because they will bring in non-union employees to work.
Seagle says the strike would be the first in Raley's nearly 80 year history.
He says the company has lost millions of dollars since 2008 because of non union competitors like Walmart that are now selling groceries.
The company has asked workers to accept a two year pay freeze.
