LOS ANGELES (AP) - During the 1992 riots here, a number of grocery
stores owned by billionaire Ron Burkle were damaged and looted.
Burkle could have closed the stores and collected the insurance.
Instead, the former bag boy kept them operating, paying pensions and health
insurance for his workers, despite the loss of business.
"His attitude was always to consider the workers," said Rick Icaza,
president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770. "He worked in the
industry. He never forgot where he came from."
The 54-year-old Burkle is now working with a union representing workers at
Dow Jones & Co. to explore alternatives to Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion bid for
the company, which publishes The Wall Street Journal.
Burkle began his grocery career at a Southern California supermarket chain
where his father was an executive. He later purchased the business, then
acquired and sold larger companies, including Ralphs supermarkets. In 1999
Burkle sold the Fred Meyer chain, which he had built from a number of smaller
chains, to Kroger Co. for a profit of $1.8 billion.
His wealth is estimated at $2.3 billion, yet his appearance is unassuming.
He prefers jeans and open-collar shirts to three-piece suits. He rarely wears a
tie.
He seldom talks to the news media, an attribute prized by the Democratic
political leaders who have sought his counsel and fundraising abilities over the
years, including Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Burkle is a former union member and is seen by labor as a tough but fair
negotiator who respects workers.
"He wasn't a pushover. He would strike a hard bargain, but a reasonable
bargain," recalled Icaza, who negotiated several labor contracts over the years
with Burkle. "Our biggest loss was when he left the industry."
Burkle runs The Yucaipa Cos., an investment firm that recently bought the
specialty magazine division from Primedia Inc. for $1.2 billion in cash.
Yucaipa this month won approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy court to take
control of auto hauler Allied Holdings Inc. The plan depended on Yucaipa
negotiating a three-year 15-percent pay cut with the Teamsters union, which
represents a majority of Allied's 5,500 workers.
Burkle also holds the position of director at several companies, including
Occidental Petroleum Corp., KB Home, and Yahoo Inc. He is co-chairman of the
Burkle Center for International Relations at the University of California, Los
Angeles.
Burkle has made several failed attempts to buy newspaper chains.
In February 2006, he joined forces with union workers at nine Knight Ridder
Inc. newspapers in an effort to buy the chain.
When Knight-Ridder eventually sold to The McClatchy Co., Yucaipa again
teamed with the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America to submit a
bid for papers McClatchy did not want to keep.
Last year, Burkle teamed with fellow Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad in an
effort to buy Tribune Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times.
That bid was rebuffed by Tribune, which chose a recapitalization plan led by
Chicago real estate investor Sam Zell.
Despite attempts to shield his private life, Burkle has become tabloid
fodder, in part because of a messy divorce that included allegations Burkle hid
lucrative business deals to avoid sharing profits with his wife. A California
appeals court rejected those claims.
Last year, Burkle accused New York Post gossip columnist Jared Paul Stern of
trying to shake him down for $220,000 to ensure he was portrayed in a favorable
light in the paper's Page Six column. Stern denied the claim.
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