Carpenters Union Putting Pressure On Lucky Supermarkets Owner

Lucky Supermarket's butchers probably never carved up a pig quite like this. Flyers handed out Tuesday morning by protesters near the Lucky store in downtown Larkspur show a pig marked with choice cuts, including Reputation, Quality, Service, Profit and Reputation. Below, it says "Don't be a pig and cut the community out of the picture."

Carpenters Local 180 is urging Robert Piccinini, chairman and CEO of Modesto-based Save Mart Supermarkets to require its general contractor Huff Construction to pay benefits and standard area wages on all its projects. Save Mart Supermarkets owns Lucky, S-Mart Foods, FoodMaxx and Maxx Value Foods.

"As a local, California corporation we have maintained a commitment for 60 years to support other local companies for our business operations to the extent they are available. We work with several contractors servicing Northern California including some based in Modesto," wrote Save Mart's public affairs director in an e-mail. "Additionally, we are a unionized grocer supporting our associates with good wages and benefits so they can support their communities."

Grocery store clerk union leaders in July reached an agreement with the supermarket chain on a new contract that covers nearly 16,000 grocery store clerks in Northern California, the Sacramento Valley and the San Joaquin Valley regions, according to an article in the San Jose Mercury News.

The deal between Save Mart and UFCW locals 5, 8, and 648 came after almost a year of negotiations.

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