The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Labor negotiations between grocery companies and picketing Southern California grocery workers have broken off and no new talks are scheduled, officials said.

About 70,000 grocery clerks went on strike or were locked out Oct. 11 at nearly 860 Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions stores from San Diego to San Luis Obispo.

Ralphs is a division of Cincinnati-based Kroger, which is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings today.

Wall Street analysts will be looking to see how the strike affects Kroger's earnings.

Albertsons Inc. reported a 51 percent decline in third-quarter profit Friday as the strike siphoned an estimated $132 million from revenue in just the last 19 days of October.

The nation's second-largest food and drug retailer said net income totaled $92 million, or 25 cents per share in the three months ended Oct. 30, compared to $188 million, or 47 cents a share, a year earlier.

The performance of Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons fell far below expectations on Wall Street, where analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call anticipated earnings of 37 cents a share.

Negotiations to end the southern California strike with a federal mediator had resumed Dec. 2 between the companies and representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. The talks broke off Sunday evening without a comprehensive offer put forth by the union, said Stacia Levenfeld, a spokeswoman for Albertsons.

The dispute centers on a demand by the supermarket chains that workers shoulder a larger portion of their health care insurance costs.

With the strike and lockout entering its ninth week, UFCW International President Doug Dority said he is calling major UFCW local unions from the United States and Canada to a "summit" in Southern California. Union officials said they will mobilize the 1.4 million members of the union to increase strike activity.

The grocery companies in a joint statement said they "are no longer willing to absorb all costs related to maintaining health care benefits" and want to introduce a "modest level of cost sharing."

The companies also are offering a reduced wage and benefit program for workers hired on or after Oct. 6 to help "face the enormous challenge of the changing competitive landscape."

The national supermarket companies that run the chains - Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. - say they face pressure from Wal-Mart, Costco and other so-called big box supermarket operators who can sell goods at lower prices because they don't pay as much for their employees' health benefits.

Kroger mediation

Kroger Co. negotiators and union leaders resumed negotiations Monday in an effort to resolve a nearly two-month-long strike by some 3,300 workers in three states.

The talks are being held at the mediator's office in Cincinnati.

Both sides began meeting Sunday at a federal mediator's request. It was the first session since a short meeting Nov. 20.

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers' Local 400 in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio have been off the job since Oct. 13, when contract negotiations with Cincinnati-based Kroger fell apart over health care and other issues.

Kroger has closed 44 stores in the three states, including 37 in West Virginia.