Posted on 06/29/2006 9:48:40 PM PDT by bd476
Edited on 06/29/2006 10:06:00 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
KCAL 9 Breaking News just announced that Ralph's Grocery Store has pleaded guilty to illegal hiring of thousands of strike workers with phony identifications during the strike...
More...
Update:
The Mercury News
Associated Press
Ralphs to plead guilty for hiring workers during 2003 strike
June 29, 2006
LOS ANGELES - The Ralphs supermarket chain said Thursday it intends to plead guilty to charges that it illegally hired hundreds of workers under fake names during the 2003 grocery strike and lockout in Southern California.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ralphs owner Kroger Co. said the chain "expects to enter into an agreement that will include a plea of guilty to some of the charges" in a 53-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in December.
A company attorney had pleaded not guilty to all the charges in January and a trial date was set for August 15.
< Snip >
It wasn't immediately known when the grocery chain will enter the expected pleas. The filing also didn't specify the amount Ralphs was willing to pay as a result of a settlement.
Prosecutors have said that the company could pay as much as $200 million, including payment for back wages, if convicted of all counts, plus restitution to Ralphs workers and their union.
The indictment accused Ralphs of engaging in a "company-wide course of criminal conduct involving the hiring of locked-out employees under false names, Social Security numbers and documentation."
Federal prosecutors said the grocery chain issued thousands of paychecks to falsely identified employees and allowed the workers to cash the checks at its stores.
Among the charges are false representation of a Social Security number, identity fraud, money laundering conspiracy, concealment of money laundering and obstruction of justice.
In hopes of hiding the practice from the workers' union, the company sent the locked-out employees to staff markets far from the outlets at which they regularly worked, according to the indictment. Some workers falsified job history and wore name tags bearing their bogus names, prosecutors said..."
Ralphs to plead guilty for hiring workers during 2003 strike...
Excerpt. Read more at: Mercury News
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/business/14934985.htm
Ralphs to plead guilty to violations during 2003 grocery strike
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - The Ralphs supermarket chain said it intends to plead guilty to charges that it illegally hired hundreds of workers under fake names during a 2003 grocery strike and lockout in Southern California.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Ralphs Grocery Co. owner Kroger Co. said the chain "expects to enter into an agreement that will include a plea of guilty to some of the charges" in a 53-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in December.
A company attorney had pleaded not guilty to all the charges in January and a trial date was set for Aug. 15.
But Ralphs said in the SEC filing that the expected agreement, if approved, would resolve the criminal charges against the chain and end its case at the National Labor Relations Board.
Cincinnati-based Kroger and the U.S. attorney's office did not return calls seeking comment Thursday night.
It wasn't immediately known when the grocery chain will enter the expected pleas.
Prosecutors have said that the company could pay as much as $200 million in fines and back wages, if convicted of all counts, plus restitution to Ralphs workers and their union.
Kroger has boosted its legal reserves to cover the cost of a settlement. The SEC filing didn't specify the amount the company was willing to pay.
The indictment accused Ralphs of engaging in a "company-wide course of criminal conduct involving the hiring of locked-out employees under false names, Social Security numbers and documentation."
Federal prosecutors said the grocery chain issued thousands of paychecks to falsely identified employees and allowed the workers to cash the checks at its stores.
Among the charges are false representation of a Social Security number, identity fraud, money laundering conspiracy, concealment of money laundering and obstruction of justice.
In hopes of hiding the practice from the workers' union, the company sent the locked-out employees to staff markets far from the outlets at which they regularly worked, according to the indictment. Some workers falsified job history and wore name tags bearing their bogus names, prosecutors said.
Ralphs locked out its employees on Oct. 11, 2003, after Southern California grocery workers voted to strike against Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Pavilions chains.
At the time, Ralphs, Safeway and Albertsons Inc. were negotiating with the workers' union. Ralphs brought in replacement workers to keep the stores running. About 59,000 workers were idled at 859 stores.
The strike lasted more than four months and cost store owners more than $2 billion by some estimates.
A spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union declined comment Thursday.
Here's the story. Would it be possible to add this to the content?
The Mercury News
Associated Press
Ralphs to plead guilty for hiring workers during 2003 strike
June 29, 2006
LOS ANGELES - The Ralphs supermarket chain said Thursday it intends to plead guilty to charges that it illegally hired hundreds of workers under fake names during the 2003 grocery strike and lockout in Southern California.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ralphs owner Kroger Co. said the chain "expects to enter into an agreement that will include a plea of guilty to some of the charges" in a 53-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in December.
A company attorney had pleaded not guilty to all the charges in January and a trial date was set for August 15.
< Snip >
It wasn't immediately known when the grocery chain will enter the expected pleas. The filing also didn't specify the amount Ralphs was willing to pay as a result of a settlement.
Prosecutors have said that the company could pay as much as $200 million, including payment for back wages, if convicted of all counts, plus restitution to Ralphs workers and their union.
The indictment accused Ralphs of engaging in a "company-wide course of criminal conduct involving the hiring of locked-out employees under false names, Social Security numbers and documentation."
Federal prosecutors said the grocery chain issued thousands of paychecks to falsely identified employees and allowed the workers to cash the checks at its stores.
Among the charges are false representation of a Social Security number, identity fraud, money laundering conspiracy, concealment of money laundering and obstruction of justice.
In hopes of hiding the practice from the workers' union, the company sent the locked-out employees to staff markets far from the outlets at which they regularly worked, according to the indictment. Some workers falsified job history and wore name tags bearing their bogus names, prosecutors said..."
Ralphs to plead guilty for hiring workers during 2003 strike
Willing to pay?
Among the charges are false representation of a Social Security number, identity fraud, money laundering conspiracy, concealment of money laundering and obstruction of justice.
Willing to pay?
Lemme get this straight-- Ralphs hired back the striking workers by giving them false names and SS#'s?
Oh what a tangled web we weave...
Thanks Calcowgirl and thank you Admin Moderator for updating the story.
Isn't Ralph's owned by Ron Burkle .. Clinton's buddy??
His was (or is) Food4Less and it might be an off-shoot of Ralph/Kroger.
>>Isn't Ralph's owned by Ron Burkle .. Clinton's buddy??
It was. He sold it to Kroger and was on the board of Kroger for a couple of years. He resigned in 2001 and was no longer affiliated with them.
'Employers who hire aliens not authorized to work in the United States are subject to fines ranging from $250 to $10,000 for each unauthorized alien. Additionally, employers who demonstrate a pattern of knowingly hiring unauthorized aliens may face up to a six-month prison term.'
http://www.law.com/jsp/tx/PubArticleTX.jsp?id=1097686231889
Ron got when the gotting was good.
agooga wrote: "Lemme get this straight-- Ralphs hired back the striking workers by giving them false names and SS#'s?"
Most of the employees who worked during the strike were current Ralph's employees from other areas in California crossing the strike line in my local area. Sometimes they were pretty open about it saying they didn't care if they got caught, and that they needed the money.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/02/BUGE2IIPO11.DTL
Burkle was raised in Claremont, a quiet town in suburban Los Angeles County. His father was an executive at the Stater Bros. supermarket chain and Burkle, armed with nothing more than a high school diploma, started at the stores as a bag boy, said Frank Quintero, Burkle's political adviser and the son of a Glendale City Council member.
Burkle worked his way up through the ranks until, as a senior executive, he tried to lead a leveraged buyout of the chain. He failed and was fired in 1986.
But, Quintero said, he won the support of the group that had offered financing for the attempted buyout, including Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, and other financiers in the company's circle. Burkle eventually became a close friend and affiliate of Milken and with his help assembled a California supermarket empire.
He eventually sold the chains, including Alpha Beta, Ralphs and Food 4 Less, to Kroger for nearly $13 billion in 1999. Previously, he bought Chicago's Dominick's chain and sold it to Safeway for $1.2 billion, earning himself and his investors enormous returns.
Conspiring with employees to do work scabs just won't do, eh?
As did most of Milken's cohorts.
Thanks for clearing that up for me
As I read the story, this thread isn't about unauthorized aliens, but then again, most threads these days end up there, so maybe you're on to something.
Thanks for asking Mo1 and thanks for answering Calcowgirl and Onyx. I knew Kroger had bought Ralph's but not about Clinton's cohort.
I bet those cows at the Lompoc State Dairy Farn miss old Mikey and Ivan, a couple of Junk bond and investment Kings extraordinaire
Farm
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