Giant, Safeway workers OK pact

Employees at Giant Food and Safeway yesterday overwhelmingly voted in favor of a new four-year employment contract, ending fears of a strike at the region’s two largest grocery chains.

Employees say they got what they wanted: an increase in wages, albeit slight, as well as a continuation of health care benefits.

“The big concern was that people were worried about losing the [health care] benefits,” said Damien Taylor, who works at a Giant store in the District.

The grocery stores and United Food & Commercial Workers Locals 400 and 27 had been negotiating since mid-February and were divided on issues such as who would pay for rising health care and pension costs. They reached a tentative agreement Sunday morning, just after the old contract expired Saturday night.

The new contract covers about 23,000 employees at Giant and Safeway stores in the Washington and Baltimore areas.

The union’s major concessions were a decrease in retirement benefits, which only apply to those employees hired prior to 1983, and an increase in the health care deductible from $200 to $300 for employees hired before 2004, said UFCW Local 400 President C. James Lowthers.

Both sides said they were happy with the contract.

“Given the fact that this is our proposal and given the fact that it was recommended by the employees’ representatives and accepted by the employees, it’s obvious that all of us got through this process and reached a fair result for all of us,” said Harry Burton, an attorney representing Giant and Safeway in the negotiations and a partner at the Washington office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

Giant Food employees voted unanimously and Safeway employees nearly unanimously in favor of the contract in the separate stand-up votes at closed-door meetings at the D.C. Armory, Mr. Lowthers said. About half of the work force turned up to vote.

In Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore, Safeway employees voted 88 percent in favor of the contract. Giant Food employees voted 94 percent in favor, according to Local 27.

The union had said it was ready to strike if the grocers didn’t meet its demands and had already started gathering community support. A group of Washington-area ministers last week called on the public to support employees in the event of a strike.

Safeway and Giant, in what they call standard practice during contract negotiations, had hired temporary employees in case there was a strike.

Many employees said yesterday they were glad it didn’t come to that.

“We didn’t want to strike. People need to work,” said one 15-year Safeway veteran who didn’t want her name published.

Mr. Lowthers said employees’ No. 1 concern was health care benefits, followed by wages.

“We didn’t want the employers giving wage increases and pulling the money out of [members’] other pockets” to pay for increases in health care and pension costs, he said.

Existing employees don’t have to contribute toward their health care premiums, although employees hired after yesterday’s meeting will have to contribute $5 per week, with an opt-out option.

Under the new contract, new employees will also start at a higher wage and get raises more quickly. Raises for existing employees vary widely, depending on job and length of employment, but most will see a 20-cent to 40-cent hourly raise each year for the next three years.

The contract includes a new clause that allows the companies to offer buyouts to employees only if they are voluntary. Mr. Burton, the attorney representing Giant and Safeway, said the stores are considering buyouts.