Union extends deadline for new Safeway contract - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The extension was announced late Thursday by the Unitexd Food and Commercial Workers Unio nLocal No. 7, which representsa about 17,000 Denver-area grocery workers now negotiatingg new contractswith Albertson’s and . It is the third extensiojn in the Safeway which began inearly April. Safeway workers voted last month to call for a strikrif necessary, but neither side has indicatex that a strike is likel in the near future. Both Albertson’es and King Soopers workers are operating without contractsrighft now. Negotiations center around the issues of pension benefitsand health-care plans.
Safeway and King Sooperds have offeredpension cuts, pay raises for just a portiom of the workers and new preventative health-care saying that with the rise of non-unionb grocery stores, some cutbacks must be “I think this [latest extension] givew us an opportunity to continue to negotiate and reallyy be able to tackle the tough issues like wages and pension said Kris Staaf, Safeway’s Denver-area directof of public affairs. The latest counter-proposal from Safeway workerxs calls for annual pay increases of 75 cents per hour over the duratiom ofthe five-year contract, according to UFCW spokeswoman Laurq Chapin.
It also seeks assurances that workers can continuwe receiving pension benefits at age 50 rather than having to wait until age 62, that current health benefitxs are not decreased and that current health-care premiums are not Safeway has not made a new contracrt proposal, Staaf said. Sherree a 15-year Safeway employee from Westminster, expressed frustrationj over the pace of negotiations in a news release put out bythe UFCW. “We gave you a proposak a week ago, and you keep coming back at us with the same Carlson said. “We need a fair deal and we need to keep the work and the workerws here inour community.
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