Grocery clerks approve contract

Preliminary results show grocery workers across Southern California overwhelmingly approved a new contract Sunday, avoiding a repeat of the prolonged supermarket strike of 2003-04. Julia M. Scott in the Daily News.

The four-year contract with Vons, Ralphs and Albertson's includes retroactive raises, improved health benefits and the end of a two-tier seniority system.

Support for the new contract "was really powerful," said Rick Icaza, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, after announcing preliminary results. "It even shocks me."

Nearly 70,000 members were eligible to vote across the region. Polls in Burbank, Palmdale, Harbor City and Montebello were open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The contract required a simple majority to pass.