Teamsters Plan to Strike 99 Cents Stores on Monday

Teamster truck drivers probably will strike 99 Cents Only Stores on Monday night, a top local union official said Friday, accusing the City of Commerce-based retailer of stalling in contract negotiations.

Paul Kenny, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 630, had pressed the company for a final offer by Thursday. But in a terse e-mail response, 99 Cents Chief Executive Eric Schiffer said the union would have to wait until noon Monday.

“It is not the company’s intention to succumb to an artificial date,” wrote Schiffer, who oversees the family-run business operating 218 stores in four states.

Company executives did not return numerous calls seeking additional comment.

Kenny, a former forklift operator, first threatened a walkout earlier in the week and said that he was ready to start the job action but that union lawyers had advised him to wait.

Local 630 represents 4,000 drivers and warehouse workers, including 65 drivers at 99 Cents.

“We want to be able to show that we made numerous attempts, that we tried everything we could to get a last, best and final offer,” he said. Following such a process could legally protect strikers from being permanently replaced.

“I don’t expect anything on Monday,” Kenny added.

He said drivers would get $475 a week in strike pay -- more than they typically earn -- for at least six months. His goal, Kenny said, was eventually to represent not only the drivers but also about 450 workers at the chain’s City of Commerce distribution center.

The drivers voted to join the union in January and have been talking with the warehouse workers, Kenny said. In a coordinated campaign, the United Food and Commercial Workers union is trying to organize clerks at 99 Cents Only stores in California.

On Wednesday, UFCW members staged a blitz to hand out fliers to employees and customers at all 153 stores in Southern California. In his e-mail, Schiffer cited that action as one reason the company didn’t have time to fashion a response to the Teamsters by the union’s deadline.

A strike would hit the company at the height of the holiday season, and in a vulnerable spot: its overloaded distribution system. Earlier this year, hang-ups in the City of Commerce warehouse kept merchandise off store shelves and depressed sales.

When investors became aware of the problem, the company’s stock lost nearly a third of its value in one day. Wall Street isn’t likely to be pleased to see more distribution problems, which Kenny says will be inevitable during a strike, even if the company hires replacements.

“All you have to do is affect 10% to cause major problems,” Kenny said. “Once you do that -- once you get a backlog going -- each day it builds.”