Raley’s to open books for outside analysis
By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee
Raley’s has agreed to open its books to an outside auditor in an effort to convince its labor union that it needs contract concessions.
The United Food and Commercial Workers said it insisted on the “independent review” as contract talks stretch into their eighth month. UFCW Locals 8 and 5, covering thousands of workers in Northern California, agreed early today to extend their contract with Raley’s to next Friday.
Raley’s consented to the outside financial review several hours after Save Mart made the same agreement, according to the UFCW. Both grocery chains are privately held and normally don’t share any financial information. The third chain negotiating with the UFCW in Northern California, Safeway, is a public company.