Industry

EL MONTE, Calif. - In a show of solidarity with striking grocery workers in Southern California, the Teamsters union has announced that its members will no longer make deliveries to Vons, Ralphs, and Albertsons supermarkets in the area to cut off supplies to their stores during Thanksgiving shopping week, according to the Associated Press and other published reports.

WASHINGTON - Agriculture secretary Ann M. Veneman announced yesterday that the rate of salmonella in raw meat and poultry has dropped by 66 percent over the past six years and by 16 percent compared with 2002.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - John P. Mackey, chairman, president and c.e.o. of Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market, has been named the 2003 Overall National Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Pinellas Park General Employees' Pension Fund and the Pompano Beach Police & Firefighters Retirement System each have sued Safeway and its management in San Mateo County Superior Court, alleging that the defendants mismanaged the company and hid its problems while reaping profits from stock sales, according to published reports.

WASHINGTON - Bargainers working on a $390 billion spending bill have agreed to block country-of-origin labeling for the next two years, lawmakers and aides said Saturday, according to The Associated Press.

NEW YORK - Talks aimed at resolving the ongoing southern California supermarket strike will start again this Saturday following a 10-day recess for the parties to reconsider their positions, a mediator said on Thursday, according to Reuters.

LOS ANGELES - Negotiators for supermarket chains and their union employees ended three days of talks Wednesday without reaching an agreement, The Associated Press reports.

INDIANAPOLIS - Union negotiators and Kroger officialsagreed to an indefinite contract extension late Tuesday, averting a possible strike by 4,000 grocery workers in central Indiana, according to an Associated Press report.