United States vs. Ralphs

The criminal case against the Compton-based supermarket chain is not over. At least the questions aren’t. While Ralphs the company has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, identity fraud and falsifying and concealing information to the IRS and Social Security Administration, no charges have been filed against any manager or executive at the company. So who was responsible for rehiring locked out Ralphs workers during the bitter 2003-04 labor dispute?

In the December issue of Los Angeles magazine (not available online), I try to piece together who did what and why. Union officials and some government investigators are convinced that the Ralphs conspiracy went well up the ladder. Maybe the whole truth will come out one of these days, maybe not. But with the current contract up in March, the United Food and Commercial Workers are bound to use the Ralphs case in an effort to cut a better deal. Here’s how the piece opens:

Marty Woods has butchered a lot of meat in nearly 30 years of working in supermarkets, but he still remembers the Sunday before Christmas of 2003. More than two months after the management at Ralphs had locked out its workers, Woods turned a corner toward the break room of a store in Seal Beach and found himself face-to-face with the president of the company, John Burgon. Woods knew who it was because Burgon and his wife had been regulars at the Laguna Beach Ralphs where he normally worked. “Hey, John, how are you doing, I’m Marty Woods,” he recalls saying, sticking out his hand and wishing Burgon a Merry Christmas. Burgon returned the good wishes. Thing is, Woods should never have been working at Ralphs that day – labor laws prohibit union members from being rehired during a lockout. Woods was there as a union plant.

Did Burgon recognize Marty Woods, as Woods claims? And if so, why didn’t he ask somebody what Woods was doing at a locked-out store? What Burgon (who did not respond to an interview request) would have discovered went beyond labor law violations. Hundreds of Ralphs workers – perhaps 1,000 or more, although the exact number will never be known – had been rehired during the 141-day dispute using the names and Social Security numbers of their children, spouses, aunts, cousins, and, in some cases, complete strangers. That’s a criminal matter and it finally took the U.S. Attorney to untangle the mess.