Probation ordered in SoCal supermarket labor fraud

Probation ordered in SoCal supermarket labor fraud
The Associated Press
Posted: 03/22/2010 06:07:40 PM PDT
Updated: 03/22/2010 06:07:40 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES—A federal judge has sentenced two former supermarket managers to probation for telling locked out employees to use false Social Security numbers so they could be rehired during the 2003-2004 Southern California grocery strike.

U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson on Monday sentenced Charles Vance of Norco and Randall Kruska of Leucadia to two years of probation each.

Prosecutors say the men, who were zone managers for Ralph's supermarkets, pleaded guilty to instructing locked out employees to falsely complete Internal Revenue Service and immigration forms during the six-month long strike.

A jury acquitted three Ralph's executives of similar charges last year.