Safeway workers-management reach consensus on contract
By Heather Somerville and George Avalos, San Jose Mercury News
Safeway struck a deal with union leaders early Thursday, ending more than 15 months of negotiations and easing fears that the recent bout of labor strife in local grocery stores might spread to the region’s largest supermarket.
The tentative contract lays out new agreements on health care, wages and other prickly labor issues, and would cover Safeway employees in the Bay Area and Northern California through October 2014.
“This new agreement provides our employees with among the best wages, benefits and working conditions in the region, while ensuring the company can compete successfully in the future,” said Karl Schroeder, president of Safeway’s Northern California Division.
While Safeway turns an amicable corner in labor negotiations, family-owned grocery Raley’s remains locked in a bitter stalemate with union members who went on strike Sunday and show no sign of leaving the picket line.
Ron Lind, Local 5 president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, would not disclose the specifics of the Safeway agreement, but said he was pleased that the union health plan was unscathed in the final offer.
“Members are relieved,” Lind said. “They’ve seen what happened at Raley’s and Nob Hill. I think they are relieved to have a peaceful settlement.”
The Safeway contract awaits approval by members of Locals 5, 8 and 648 of the UFCW, and labor leaders said Thursday they expected to finalize the contract in less than a month.
“We will recommend strongly that they ratify this contract, and I’m confident that they will,” Lind said.
The agreement could put pressure on Raley’s to bend to union demands on pay and benefits. Save Mart, the other major grocer in the region, has already signed a deal with the UFCW.
A Raley’s spokesman said this week the company’s offer is better more generous than the Save Mart contract, and Raley’s will keep stores open and continue serving customers until the union votes. The strike is the first in Raley’s 77-year history.
Why didn’t the union allow its members to vote on the Raley’s contract offer? Trying to make an example of the store and show how they can still flex their muscle? Looks like it worked on Safeway.
Hey being what jobs are now days,I know we all like our employers to have all these great deals in place for retirement,but in a new world order you’re very lucky at this time to have a good paying job with any benefits at all.
There’s people love to have our fellow Raleys job,as the job market in this town like in the dumpster,like a lot the town.
I’m still shopping there ,know the people marching around, stop say Hello to them when I enter the store.
Yesterday I did get lots of thank you for shopping there plus free dozen eggs, potato chips,coke,avocado, with a 20 dollar purchase which not hard at all now days.
I don’t think anyone wins in Strikes.
Its kinda like love, it’s better to have love some than not to have loved at all.
Wish they get this cleared up as I hate seeing this happening with our local community ,fellow friends that do have great customer service regardless of the bad vibes between its employees and unions.
New world order… be thankful for any crumbs they throw you…get some free stuff for yourself while looking out for #1… it’s only this way as long as everybody accepts it. Don’t fall for the oligarchs and multi-national corps. claiming poverty, it’s propaganda BS to drive down wages on the middle class here in America. Re-regulate and actually collect taxes from the 1% and monopolistic corp. thieves. We have the power if we use it collectively to fight back. Read your history of labor, it ain’t gonna be easy after 30+ yrs. of the horrible failure of reaganomics but it can, and must be done.
Tea, you worry about a grocery store while your government sends our children to die in Afghan mountains and surveils its citizens with drones. Our president has given your money to politically connected corporations in the billions. and you demonize a grocery chain that is trying to keep its expenses down in order to keep our food affordable. These are not dangerous nor highly specialized jobs.
This union fight is all about the wrong stuff.
Agree Dog….$
It’s not just the grocery business, it’s all middle class labor in America and the bush/cheney wars are winding down thanks to this President and the “Me the People” ignorant sociopathic mindset of the greedy teabaggers has been overwhelmingly rejected by the American electorate. The rights hero Karl Rove’s billionaire faction lost. Time for the losers to get out of the way of progress.
Is there any way to compare the two contracts, Safeway v Raley? Are Raley’s employees really getting the short end or did the Safeway employees cave out of fear?