The labor dispute at the 12 O'ahu Times Super Markets may have ended nearly a year ago, but the beef between the company and union that represented more than 110 Times meat department employees continues.

One year ago yesterday, 116 members of the Hawai'i Teamsters & Allied Workers Local 996 walked off their jobs after failing to reach a contract agreement. When Times began to advertise for replacement workers, the union gave the company a "return-to-work" offer, which essentially ended the strike.

But not all 116 workers were rehired and the union called for a public boycott of the stores. In February, Times' unionized workers voted to decertify Local 996 as their representative, a vote that was upheld by the National Labor Relations Board.

Despite the action, the union has continued to ask that people not shop at Times. The union has run TV, radio and newspaper ads, arguing that the labor dispute with Times is not over.

Yesterday, several Times employees and managers held a press conference at the Times Beretania store, urging the public to disregard the boycott.

Bob Stout, director of store operations, said the nearly year-long boycott has had some effect on Times' business, but said it was difficult to tell how much.

"How do you separate that from the bad economy, people making less trips to the grocery stores?" Stout said. "We're hearing lots of comments from other retailers that business is flat, customer counts are flat or down. How you separate that would be difficult."

But Stout believes some customers are hesitant to shop at Times stores because they aren't sure whether there is a labor dispute.

"We still have people commenting that they think there's a strike," he said.

Ron Kozuma, Local 996 president, said the union is appealing the NLRB's ruling. He added that a majority of Times' former unionized workers signed a petition this past spring saying they wanted to be represented again.

Kozuma said the union continues to call for a boycott because it believes the workers want union representation, but are afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation.

"The union's intentions are to get the company to come back to the table and negotiate a fair contract with these men and women. No more, no less. That's what we're trying to do," he said.

Howard Galariada, a meat cutter with Times for 24 years, criticized Kozuma yesterday. Galariada said the workers "made a mistake" when they struck last year because the only sticking point was the length of extended medical leave.

Galariada said he wanted people to know that there are no labor-management issues at Times.

"There is no labor dispute. We're no longer a union company, and the boycotting that they're doing will not only affect Times, but his own Teamsters members," he said of Kozuma.

Galariada said many Times' vendors employ members of the Teamsters.

Kozuma said Galariada was one of a few workers who crossed the picket line during the strike.

"It's unfortunate that you have these few individuals having to now justify their actions by joining the company," Kozuma said.