A decision by Colorado King Soopers workers on whether to allow a federal mediator to draft a contract with Kroger could come by the end of the week.
The King Soopers negotiating committee has been considering the proposal by the grocery chain since December. Earlier this month, voting on the proposal was stopped when the 338 members of the negotiating committee each received a sheet with 10 ballots rather than a single ballot as intended.
Because of the mishap, the vote needed to be retaken.
Dave Minshall, spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, said there were no specific deadlines governing the committee's vote.
However, federal mediator Scot Beckenbaugh sent a letter to Kroger and the union president, Ernest Duran, requesting them to submit any additional information relevant to the possible contract to him by the end of the day today.
In the letter, posted on the UFCW Web site, Beckenbaugh wrote that he would only seriously consider Kroger's request if it came from both the union and Kroger.
Minshall reportedly said on Tuesday that he believed the King Soopers negotiating committee would approve the request to have Beckenbaugh draft a contract. However, the contract would need to be approved by both the union and Kroger before it becomes final.
This solution has been proposed only by Kroger.
The UFCW is also in negotiations with Safeway and Albertsons grocery stores. Neither of those companies is part of the proposal.
Employees of all three companies have been working without a contract since last Sept. 11.
In Pueblo, workers at Safeway and King Soopers are members of the union, but those at Alberstons and Grocery Warehouse, which is owned by Alberstons, are not.
Major issues in the negotiations have been the cost of health care, both for the companies and for the workers, and wages. The union was also concerned about whether new stores opened by the company would come under union protection.
Last November, the UFCW's national office stopped voting after it became concerned that a proposed contract would have major ramifications to the union throughout the country if it won the employees' ratification.