The National Labor Relations Board has notified Smith's that the company will have to appear before a federal judge if Smith's doesn't provide information that was requested by a labor union with which the grocery chain is negotiating a new contract.

The information requested by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1564 includes such matters as the total sales of Smith's in New Mexico from the year 2005 to the present; the earnings of Smith's in New Mexico during the same time period; and the amount paid to Smith's employees in retirement and health benefits from 2005 to now.

The NLRB is demanding that the information be provided on or before Tuesday, a court document states. A hearing dealing with the matter is set for Oct. 19, 2010.

Smith's has refused to provide the information, said Greg Frazier, president of UFCW Local 1564, in a statement. He was not available for comment.

Smith's and the local union have been discussing a new contract since May 2010. The one-year contract the grocery chain and the labor union agreed on last year expired June 4.

Smith's employs 2,400 people in New Mexico with 2,000 of those workers covered by the collective bargaining with UFCW Local 1564.

Smith's position is that it needs to remain competitive by keeping a tight rein on wages, while the union insists Smith's and its parent company, Kroger, could afford to pay workers more.

The union is also concerned about losing some of its health care benefits.

In an e-mail, Marsha Gilford, Smith's senior vice president for public affairs, said in response to the union's efforts to gather information about Smith's, "It's not unusual for labor negotiations to give rise to these types of complaints. While Smith's has already provided a significant amount of information about our business to the union, we believe these particular requests are for information that is competitively sensitive, confidential and proprietary.

"It is our position that, given the natural of that information, we are not legally obligated to provide it."