News
Entertainment
In what was described as a “big turnout,” a local group of Safeway workers approved a long-term contract and joined their unionized mates in coming to terms with the grocer, representatives said.
The Grand Junction Safeway Meat Bargaining Unit unanimously approved a 52-month contract earlier this week that calls for pay hikes and bonuses. The workers ratified the contract during a pair of votes Tuesday at the IBEW Hall in Clifton.
The ratification vote came roughly two months after the same group of grocery workers failed to endorse the contract with that outcome ending in a tie. Their retail counterparts at Safeway stores in Grand Junction accepted the deal in December.
Several other Safeway bargaining units also ratified the contract, although a lot of units rejected the deal at the time. The same thing happened with grocery bargaining units at King Soopers.
Since then many of the bargaining units for Safeway and King Soopers who tied or did not approve the contract have endorsed the deal.
Grocery workers in Denver and Colorado Springs approved the contract last month. A series of votes since followed with grocery workers ranging from Pueblo to Glenwood Springs giving their stamp of approval.
“It is good news,” said Kris Staaf, spokeswoman for Safeway Inc. in Denver, on Thursday. “I think we are rounding the corner, and we are in the final stretch.”
The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 supported the most recent contract offer - something it declined to do last year under a previous administration. Local 7 President Kim Cordova took office in January.
Local 7 represents about 17,000 grocery workers in the state.
The voting was scheduled to wrap up Friday in Salida with Safeway workers in places such as Evergreen and Conifer casting ballots Thursday.
The 52-month contract includes a signing bonus, wage increases, improved health care insurance and a way to update the pension plan. The bonuses range from $150 to $1,000 and come in the form of in-store gift cards. None of that is new.
What is new is a move by the chains to add a “plan to hold down the rapidly rising costs of retiree health insurance premiums, which could have jumped as much as 21 percent this year,” the union said in a statement.
That, along with the backing of Local 7, appears to have been a prime factor in getting workers to approve the deal.
The voting by Safeway and King Soopers workers comes on the heels of ratification by Albertsons employees in Colorado. The Albertsons contract is similar to the deal voted on by workers at King Soopers and Safeway.
Reach Wyatt Haupt Jr. at whaupt@gjfreepress.com.
The Grand Junction Safeway Meat Bargaining Unit unanimously approved a 52-month contract earlier this week that calls for pay hikes and bonuses. The workers ratified the contract during a pair of votes Tuesday at the IBEW Hall in Clifton.
The ratification vote came roughly two months after the same group of grocery workers failed to endorse the contract with that outcome ending in a tie. Their retail counterparts at Safeway stores in Grand Junction accepted the deal in December.
Several other Safeway bargaining units also ratified the contract, although a lot of units rejected the deal at the time. The same thing happened with grocery bargaining units at King Soopers.
Since then many of the bargaining units for Safeway and King Soopers who tied or did not approve the contract have endorsed the deal.
Grocery workers in Denver and Colorado Springs approved the contract last month. A series of votes since followed with grocery workers ranging from Pueblo to Glenwood Springs giving their stamp of approval.
“It is good news,” said Kris Staaf, spokeswoman for Safeway Inc. in Denver, on Thursday. “I think we are rounding the corner, and we are in the final stretch.”
The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 supported the most recent contract offer - something it declined to do last year under a previous administration. Local 7 President Kim Cordova took office in January.
Local 7 represents about 17,000 grocery workers in the state.
The voting was scheduled to wrap up Friday in Salida with Safeway workers in places such as Evergreen and Conifer casting ballots Thursday.
The 52-month contract includes a signing bonus, wage increases, improved health care insurance and a way to update the pension plan. The bonuses range from $150 to $1,000 and come in the form of in-store gift cards. None of that is new.
What is new is a move by the chains to add a “plan to hold down the rapidly rising costs of retiree health insurance premiums, which could have jumped as much as 21 percent this year,” the union said in a statement.
That, along with the backing of Local 7, appears to have been a prime factor in getting workers to approve the deal.
The voting by Safeway and King Soopers workers comes on the heels of ratification by Albertsons employees in Colorado. The Albertsons contract is similar to the deal voted on by workers at King Soopers and Safeway.
Reach Wyatt Haupt Jr. at whaupt@gjfreepress.com.
