More than 3,000 grocery workers will return to the jobs at 44 stores in three states after members of the United Food and Commercial Workers voted to ratify a new contract with Kroger, media outlets reported.

The vote in favor of the contract was 962-717.

The strike was one of two remaining labor actions nationwide in the retail grocery industry. Another strike continues in California.

Like other labor disputes in the industry, the Kroger strike centered on health benefits. The corporation agreed to contribute more to the union’s health care fund as part of the agreement.

However, Reuters news service reported that three stores in West Virginia would not reopen in the wake of the strike.

The labor disputes started when roughly 70,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union went on strike Oct. 21 against more than 800 Southern California stores operated by Vons, Ralph's, Pavilions and Albertsons. Those stores make up roughly 60 percent of all groceries in the southern half of the state.

Grocery workers in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky went on strike soon after.

While those strikes were under way, labor disputes started to flare up in other parts of the nation. Federal mediators were able to either end or avoid strikes in several locations.

The California strike is still under way, with observers saying there is little sign of movement toward an agreement.

As that strike nears the end of its second month, Kroger Co. is taking extreme measures to keep its Ralph’s stores in the strike zone open, importing up to 60 non-union workers from the Atlanta area, a continent away, to keep the West Coast stores open, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.

The same union covers workers in Atlanta and Southern California, the newspaper reported, and the movement of assistant managers and other non-union employees from one area to another is a sticking point with the union.