SAN DIEGO -- Union truck drivers are threatening to join grocery workers on the picket lines. The Teamster's Union is planning to expand the strike to food distribution warehouses.

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The Teamster's said it is working on ways to shut down 11 food distribution warehouses which supply the strike-bound stores.

Striking grocery workers have already shut down a Vons distribution center in the El Monte, a suburb of Los Angeles.

The truckers who have been delivering food from the warehouses to the supermarkets have joined the striking workers. A Teamster's spokesman said there are plans to shut down 11 of the warehouses, putting 8,000 truckers on the picket line.

Jim Santangello, a Teamster's spokesman, said, "They're telling me to extend the lines right now."

Santangello said if truckers join the grocery workers, it will have an immediate impact on the supermarkets.

"They will have to go into their pickets and hire truck drivers and warehousemen," Santangello said.

All of this is more bad news for independent distributors, 10News reported.

Danny Buckle delivers Pepperidge Farm snacks and cookies to markets in the East County. Buckle borrowed money to buy this sales route.

Normally Buckle will deliver $200 to $300 worth of product to an Albertsons store in Rancho San Diego. But customers are not crossing the picket line and Buckle has seen a $200 a week order cut to $50 -- his 20 percent commission cut right along with it.

The crackers can sit on the shelves for three months without going bad. But Buckle's mortgage won't wait.

Teamsters may be ready to join the picket line but independent distributors like Buckle are pleading for a settlement.

"All I want is just to get back to the table and work it out," Buckle told 10News.

The grocery store chains told 10News that there are no plans to get back to the bargaining table. The stores said they are prepared if the Teamsters join the strike. A settlement seems a long way off, according to 10News.