Flip Side of Grocery Deal: Applicants Losing Possible Strike Jobs

Richard Littlefield is a 65-year-old former meat inspector who had a special interest in the just-resolved grocery labor talks.

“If they were going to strike, I was ready to take their job,” he said Monday afternoon in response to a reporter’s question outside the Lake Mesa Springs Vons.

Littlefield, who lives in La Mesa, said he’s been jobless for two years after traveling widely on behalf of his former employer, Houston-based Sysco Corp.

He said he had applied at Vons and would have done any job.

La Mesans interviewed outside the University Avenue Vons mostly expressed relief that a strike had been averted at that chain, Albertsons and Ralphs.

“I don’t think it benefits either side,” said Jacob Sacks, 22, a bagger at the Vons on Fletcher Parkway and Navajo Road in San Carlos shopping at the sister store. The La Mesan said he heard the news at work.

Agreeing was Joe Holub, 64, who said: “Nobody wins when there’s a strike.” But Holub, a La Mesan living nearby, said he would have crossed picket lines to shop at his local Vons.

“I can’t envision myself going out of my comfort zone—just to get staples,” he said.

Dallas Coats, 56, would have shopped elsewhere—even at the “little Iranian store” near her home, or at Costco on Fletcher Parkway.

She said she was shocked when she heard how many stores would be affected by a strike.

“I didn’t realize so many stores would be shut down,” said Coats, a union supporter. “It’s a commodity we all need—you can’t not eat.”

Vons shopper Darlene Sampley, 71, noted the price of a strike to employees: “It costs so much more when they go on strike.”

Chad Willenberg, a 36-year-old San Diego city firefighter shopping with his kids, said he was very pleased that a fellow union prevailed in contract talks ongoing since February.

“It’s all about a positive working environment for the employees,” he said. “Employers and employees get what they need.”

Willenberg said he was always hopeful that an agreement would be reached. Otherwise, the La Mesan said, he would have shopped at Henry’s or Costco.

Ben McKee, enjoying a drink while “chilling, enjoying life” at a shaded picnic table in the Vons patio, said he would have shopped at Walmart in the event of a walkout.

He also would have used the commissary at Naval Base Coronado, where he had a pass through his ex-wife.

“It’s a lot cheaper out there,” said McKee, who recently moved here from Anchorage, AK.

Steve McCann, 41, who works at a nonunion store, said he would have respected picket lines and shopped elsewhere, including Henry’s (now known as Sprouts Farmers Market), which has a Spring Street location in La Mesa.

“I would have gone to any local nonunion shop,” he said, pushing a cart toward the Vons parking lot.

He said he shopped as Keil’s in San Carlos during the 2003-04 strike, which lasted four months.

But unions are suffering along with the times.

“If the economy were stronger, then unions would be stronger,” he said.

McCann understood why people like Littlefield would apply for work at Vons.

“Everyone wants a job,” he said.