Acme and its union are nearing a showdown

She is a 54-year-old grocery worker at Acme, a 37-year veteran with the supermarket chain whose name embodies Philadelphia tradition. And today, she will go to church and pray.

For several weeks, Anna Ryan has endured sleepless nights over the vote at the Spectrum tonight on a take-it-or-leave-it contract offer that Acme Markets says it needs to survive, but that union officials say preys on the recession fears of 4,500 grocery workers across Southeastern Pennsylvania.

"Everything that I have worked for could virtually go up in smoke," said Ryan, a full-time office coordinator who started with Acme as a college student at La Salle, just like company president Judith A. Spires, and about the same time, back in the 1970s.

"I have to have faith in God and in the union and in Judy Spires and in [corporate parent] Supervalu," said Ryan. "That they will do the best for the employees, for the customers, and for the company."

Wendell Young IV, who heads United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, said the union would not take a strike vote tonight but was bracing for a confrontation.

If its members reject the contract - and Acme goes ahead and implements its terms on July 10, when the current contract expires - union employees will not report to work on grounds of a company lockout, Young said.

Such a move would empty Acme's 41 area supermarkets of clerks, baggers, and others. Union officials said the company has made it known it will dispute a lockout and claims for jobless benefits.

"There's a lot of factors that will determine what we decide to do at that time," Bart Bohlen, senior vice president of operations and sales, said yesterday. "On July 10, we will make a determination on what the right thing to do is for the company and the associates."

Union officials say Acme's proposal could leave workers without company health coverage in a few years.

Acme says its contract contains sacrifices necessary for today's times. Acme has seen its wide margin as regional sales leader reduced yearly by competitors like nonunion Wal-Mart and Wegmans.

"I'm no lawyer, but even I can see the holes that Acme is leaving in this," said 20-year-old clerk Michael Gaudini, who works part-time in Narberth while attending Temple University.

His mother, Marita Gaudini, who turns 50 today, has worked at Acme for decades and relied on her part-time job and benefits as Gaudini's father, a carpenter, has struggled to find work.

The proposal offers modest lump-sum wage increases, introduces health-care co-pays, and promises to continue contributions to pensions.

But, according to the union, the contract would also allow Acme to make up future shortfalls in its pension-fund payments by siphoning funds from employee health-plan contributions and wages.

Acme officials said workers would retain generous wages and health benefits.

"The [health-benefit] contributions that we make per associate with our last, best, and final offer will still be 250 percent higher than the average employer in the marketplace, even with the reductions," Bohlen said.

The union also objects to language that would let Acme lease 8,000 square feet of store space to contractors, jeopardizing union jobs.

Spires has said the contract seeks to "stop the bleeding" and ensure Acme's survival.

The union says the company is being opportunistic, trying to score big cuts at a time when everyone is nervous about job security.

"You have a company that's taking advantage of these desperate times, and the worst economy since the Great Depression," Young said. "And they're trying to scare our members into accepting terms that are far harsher than they actually need."

Tonight, union officials will urge members to reject Acme's "last, best offer." The meeting will begin at 6 and last for hours. Young said he would go through the contract "line by line."

At stake are protections and perks that have distinguished Acme from nonunion competitors - wages, benefits, and work rules that helped build middle-class families, union officials say.

Acme officials said they produced the offer two weeks ago because 18 months of talks yielded no consensus.

Since then, executives have mailed letters to workers' homes, along with personal pleas recorded on DVDs. Acme also created a Web site, www.acmelabornews.com, where it has posted such things as instructions on how workers can go about withdrawing from the union.

Ryan said she has faith in the future. She hopes that Spires, whose father was a unionized Acme bread-delivery man, has taken people like her into account in crafting the new contract.

"She worked her way up in the company. God bless her," Ryan said. "But does she remember? There's a lot of people she worked with when she first started who are still there.

"Would she want her father to sign this proposal? He was just a bread driver. Would Judy Spires tell her father, 'Sign this contract, it's good for you?' "