LOS ANGELES – In a stunning vindication of striking grocery workers’ claims, a federal grand jury on Thursday returned a 53-count indictment against Ralphs Grocery Co., accusing it of secretly rehiring hundreds of locked-out workers under false names and false Social Security numbers during the 2003-2004 grocery strike, the largest ever in the grocery industry.

The indictment claims Ralphs used the false names and numbers to hide its illegal activities from the IRS, from the National Labor Relations Board and the Social Security Administration; that it falsified employment and tax documents; falsified reports to workers’ pension and trust funds; and issued thousands of paychecks under false names and cashed the checks at its stores to help workers conceal the frauds. It accuses Ralphs of conspiring with its two main competitors, Albertson’s and Von’s, to circumvent a collective bargaining agreement and whack it to the union, and of obstructing the NLRB investigation.

The strike and lockout affected about 70,000 grocery workers in Southern California and attracted widespread sympathy from the public. The indictment accuses Ralphs of illegally locking out 19,000 clerks and meat cutters at its Southern California stores from October 2003 to March 1, 2004. The collective bargaining agreement covering all three grocery giants expired on Oct. 5, 2003. Members of seven locals struck Vons on Oct. 11. The next day, Ralphs and Albertson’s locked out all union members.

Ralphs senior managers are accused of agreeing to secretly, and illegally, rehire locked-out workers, sending them far from their regular workplaces and giving them false name tags and moving them from store to store to hide their illegal actions. The indictment also accuses Ralphs of making false statements to the NLRB, obstructing its investigation. By its own estimate, Ralphs could owe its locked-out workers as much as $100 million in back pay, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The U.S. Attorney issued a press statement Thursday stating, “The indictment specifically charges Ralphs with conspiracy to commit three objectives: to use false social security numbers, to commit identity fraud, and to falsify and conceal material facts in matters within the jurisdiction of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration.

Additionally, the indictment alleges 14 counts of causing the use of false social security numbers, five counts of identity fraud, one count of falsifying and concealing material facts in matters within the jurisdiction of the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, 11 counts of money laundering, 16 counts of false statements relating to an employee benefit plan, one count of concealment of facts relating to an employee benefit plan, two counts of false statements to the NLRB and one count of obstruction of justice. “Special Agent in Charge David F. Butler, with the Social Security Administration, stated: ‘The coercive actions of Ralphs Grocery Company caused hundreds of their employees to commit federal felonies through the use of false names and Social Security numbers to complete federal employment documents. The company’s actions constitute intentional identity fraud on a large scale by a major company. This was done without regard to the damaging consequences to the record-keeping of the Social Security Administration or to the criminal liability forced on its employees.'” In a related lawsuit, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board faces a class-action complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court from Ralphs and Albertson’s workers who says they were improperly denied unemployment insurance during the strike.