ROSEVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 2004--The following announcement was made today by UFCW 588-Northern California President Jack L. Loveall at 8:00 a.m. in front of the Union's headquarters here:
Good morning ladies and gentleman.
I'd like to take a moment to introduce the rest of the UFCW 588 negotiating team: Jacques Loveall, Executive Vice President and Mike Tursky, Secretary-Treasurer.
Late last night, five months of extensions of our previous labor contracts with Safeway, Albertson's and Ralphs came to an end. We informed the companies that the 19,000 members of UFCW 588 had waited long enough for a new contract. We told them we must reach a satisfactory agreement by midnight Sunday, Dec. 19, or we would recommend that the members authorize a strike.
Our challenge from the start was to protect the superior wages and benefits "588" members have enjoyed for decades, while addressing the competitive atmosphere in the supermarket industry and skyrocketing health care costs.
I am pleased to announce we've succeeded In that challenge.
We approached our negotiations with these goals in mind:
No employee-paid premiums for health care benefits.
We've done it!
No two-tier wage structure.
We've done it!
No two-tier health care benefits.
We've done it!
Maintain the finest contract in the supermarket industry.
We've done it!
UFCW 588-Northern California and Albertson's, Ralphs and Safeway have agreed on tentative terms for a new labor agreement that will set the standard and formula for other negotiations facing these complex issues.
This agreement averts a strike and maintains the finest contract in the supermarket industry with no employee-paid health care premiums and no two-tier wages or benefits.
These negotiations, which began in February, were extraordinarily complex. As in negotiations elsewhere in the industry, the primary issues dealt with company proposals to shift the cost of health care and pension benefits to employees, two tier wages, health care and pension programs, and weak job protection language.
We salute the heroes of the Southern California strike and lockout who, for 20 weeks, fought bravely on behalf of UFCW members and all working people around the country. Their courageous fight and sacrifice helped win this agreement.
We are extremely proud of the members of UFCW 588-Northern California for making this success possible. We thank them for strengthening our negotiating position by demonstrating solidarity and pride in their union.
They proved once again that "Solidarity Works!"
Thank you, and good morning.
In the first breakthrough in Sacramento's increasingly tense supermarket contract talks, Raley's reached a tentative agreement Friday on a new contract with the union representing its workers.
The agreement came as federal mediators stepped into the down-to-the-wire negotiations between Local 588 of the United Food and Commercial Workers and three other grocery chains: Safeway Inc., Albertsons Inc. and Ralphs Grocery. The local has ended its contract extension with those three chains and set a midnight Sunday negotiating deadline.
The union has vowed to call a strike authorization vote against those three companies if the deadline passes without an agreement, raising the possibility of Sacramento's first supermarket strike since 1995.
The timing of the Raley's settlement might not be a coincidence. It could put added pressure on the other three chains to make a deal, said retailing consultant Burt Flickinger III. That's because Raley's would act as a kind of safety valve for consumers sympathetic to labor; they'll have a place to shop without having to cross a picket line, he said.
Neither Raley's nor Local 588 would disclose details of the tentative agreement; the local said conditions will be released when the affected workers have a chance to look at the contract next week. The agreement includes Raley's and its Bel Air and Nob Hill subsidiaries and covers about 6,500 employees from Modesto to the Oregon border.
Contract talks have dragged on for months as supermarket chains have pressed the UFCW for concessions on pay and benefits. The companies argue that they need relief from soaring health care costs and the pressure from low-price upstarts in the grocery business such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Similar issues spawned the big Southern California strike that began in October 2003, which idled 70,000 workers for four and a half months. The affected chains - Safeway, Albertsons and Ralphs - kept their stores open but lost an estimated $1.5 billion in sales as shoppers flocked to stores that weren't part of the strike.
With the economic loss suffered by the companies, the Southern California strike set a tone for bargaining in other cities. Labor and management, eager to avoid a repeat walkout, have been able to settle contracts peacefully in city after city. In most cases the union accepted concessions of some kind.
The union representing 19,000 Sacramento-area grocery workers is threatening to take a strike authorization vote if a contract isn't reached by midnight Sunday, a move that could push 30,000 Bay Area grocery workers closer to a similar vote.
Jack Loveall, who heads the Sacramento local of United Food and Commercial Workers, did not return a Mercury News phone call Wednesday. But in an online newsletter he said Tuesday that Albertsons, Safeway and Ralphs had been informed of the deadline, which doesn't apply to Bel-Air, Nob Hill, Raley's, Save Mart and other grocers involved in the talks.
The union and grocers have been negotiating a contract since July 17.
``The primary issues at the bargaining table continue to be company proposals to dramatically shift the cost of health care and pension costs to employees, to gut critical job-protection language and to introduce lower wage levels for new employees,'' the newsletter said.
Those same issues are central to the Bay Area labor talks, which began Sept. 8.
If a strike authorization vote is approved in Sacramento, that could prompt a similar vote in the Bay Area when that contract expires Jan. 15, according to Ron Lind, spokesman for the unions here. But Lind said he'd prefer to avoid that.
``We hope they come up with a fair settlement'' in Sacramento, he said.
Pleasanton-based Safeway issued a statement saying its discussions with the Sacramento union ``have been slow and difficult, but progress has been made and we believe it is well worth continuing the negotiations process.''
The statement added, however, ``If negotiations fail to produce an agreement, we are prepared to continue serving our customers by keeping our stores staffed and running as usual.''
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The California Labor Federation said Wednesday that its members would collect pledges from grocery store customers to boycott major Bay Area supermarket chains if current contract negotiations broke down.
Safeway Inc., Kroger Co.'s Ralphs stores and units of Albertsons Inc. have presented a contract proposal seeking a lower-paid tier of workers and cuts in health benefits for its Bay Area workers.
The chains have extended their current contract until mid-January while negotiations continue with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents 30,000 grocery workers in the area.
Next week, grocery workers and labor, church and neighborhood groups will ask shoppers outside 54 Safeway stores in Northern California to promise to boycott Safeway, as well as Kroger and Albertsons stores, if contract talks fail.
Grocery workers have already collected 75,000 pledge cards, union officials say. By expanding these efforts, the UFCW hopes to pressure the chains to reconsider their latest offer, which the union says passes on too much of the cost of healthcare to workers.
"They have a proposal on the table that would be devastating to our members and future members," said Ron Lind, president of UFCW San Jose Local 428.
Under the proposal, new grocery store hires would reach the top of the pay scale in eight years, rather than in one or two years under the current contract, Lind said. New hires also would make $2 less an hour than existing workers, Lind said, and pay 20% of their healthcare costs.
Currently, the union's grocery workers in the Bay Area are responsible for co-payments for doctor visits but do not have any medical premiums deducted from their paychecks. The companies also propose capping their contributions to healthcare benefits and to administer the plan themselves rather than through a joint union-supermarket fund.
The proposal is similar to the contract the supermarkets negotiated on behalf of 59,000 grocery workers in Southern and Central California in late February, after a bitter 4 1/2 -month strike and lockout.
Both sides say they hope to avoid a similar work stoppage in the Bay Area.
Safeway spokesman Brian Dowling said the latest proposal was preliminary and "subject to bargaining." Safeway still believes the supermarkets can reach a new union agreement by the first quarter and avert a strike, he said.
Since last winter, Safeway has inked deals with UFCW workers in Seattle, Washington and Phoenix without a strike. Contentious negotiations are still underway in Denver.
Negotiations in the Bay Area took a sour turn this week when Safeway took out a full-page ad in local newspapers asking union officials to come up with their own proposal, rather than attack the offer on the table.
The UFCW will offer its proposal in the next two weeks, Lind said.