The Teamsters said Nov. 24 that the union’s workers would no longer deliver to distribution centers operated by three grocery chains currently under strike in Southern California, media outlets reported. The action will halt food deliveries to the stores just before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Roughly 70,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union have been on strike since 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.

The strike, like grocery worker strikes that have recently hit other parts of the United States, centers on health benefits. One of the strikes, in the St. Louis area, ended recently after intervention by a federal mediator.

On Nov. 24, striking clerks were scheduled to start picketing distribution centers that are operated by the grocery chains and that supply the stores under strike. Teamsters officials told The Los Angeles Times union members would not cross those picket lines. Those members not only drive some of the trucks supplying the distribution centers, they also work in the centers.

The three chains say they have a plan to keep stores full, but they have not yet announced what that plan is, the newspaper reported. Both sides have been meeting with a federal mediator.

In the St. Louis strike, more than 10,000 strikers targeted roughly 90 stores operated under the Schnuck's, Dierberg's and Shop & Save banners, local media outlets reported. During the St. Louis strike, workers started action against one chain, after which the two others locked out union workers.

In two other states, negotiators have been able to avert strike actions.

More than 4,000 workers at Kroger stores in Indiana are in negotiations with their employer aimed at averting a strike in that state, The Associated Press reported Nov. 19. Health care is a factor in those negotiations as well. The news service said a federal mediator had secured an indefinite extension of the deadline to reach an agreement, allowing negotiations to continue.

In addition, a strike was also averted recently in Arizona. The Arizona Republic reported Oct. 27 that members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99 in Arizona indefinitely extended their contract with Safeway and Fry's Food Stores, avoiding a strike by 14,000 workers in that state.

However, at least one other grocery worker strike, this one covering stores in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, continues. Negotiations between Kroger and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 were moving ahead in that strike, which also centers on health benefits.