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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 2015)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | October 2, 2015 | PAGE 11 At the ‘Big 3’ grocers, bargaining begins with UFCW Bargaining has begun over new union contracts for 10,000 work- ers at Fred Meyer, Safeway and Albertsons stores in Portland and Bend, Oregon. And for the first time, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 will be bargaining with all grocery, meat, central checkout, and non-food con- tracts at a single table. But if union members thought they’d no longer be fighting em- ployers over sick leave — now that a new Oregon law will guar- antee it for all workers statewide — they were disappointed when the two sides traded initial pro- posals Sept. 15. The existing contracts provide up to 120 hours a year of paid sick leave, but workers can’t use the leave until the third day of an illness. Local 555 President Dan “We want to see a wage increase for our members. … And we want to make sure our health and welfare plan isn’t de- funded.” — UFCW Local 555 president Dan Clay Clay says for many years the union proposed first-day sick leave, but never got anything but “hell no” from grocery employ- ers. So Local 555 worked hard to win paid sick leave for all — first in Portland and Eugene, then statewide. The new Oregon law, which takes effect Jan. 1, lets workers take the sick leave the first day they’re sick. “Our employers have re- sponded by proposing to elimi- nate all contractual sick leave obligations,” Clay told the Labor Press. In other words, Kroger and newly-merged Safeway and Albertsons want grocery work- ers to give up the 120-hour ben- efit and accept the 40-hour statewide minimum instead. Still, Clay said bargaining might go more smoothly than three years ago, when the em- ployer group had to rescue pen- sion and health plans … and workers got raises of just 25 cents an hour. Now the union’s How the Big 3 became the Big 2 The last time Local 555 bar- gained, it was with the “Big Three” multi-employer group that included Kroger (Fred Meyer’s parent company), Safeway, and Albertsons. The group has since become the “Big Two.” Albertsons — owned by an investor consor- tium led by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management — acquired Safeway in Janu- ary for $9.2 billion. As a condi- tion of approving the merger, anti-trust regulators at the Fed- eral Trade Commission re- quired the merged company to sell 168 of its roughly 2,400 stores. The 18-store Haggen su- permarket chain, which is con- trolled by the private invest- ment firm Comvest Partners, bought 146 of them. But the Bellingham, Washington-head- quartered Haggen quickly ran into trouble with its massive ex- pansion, and began laying off multi-employer pension is up to 93 percent funding — thanks to the financial market rebound and extra money that employers kicked in. And the two health and welfare plans have merged and are in better shape financially. “We want to see a wage in- crease for our members. We want to make sure that the pen- sion plan stays solid. And we want to make sure our health and welfare plan isn’t defunded,” Clay said. The two sides haven’t presented wage and benefit pro- posals yet, but the union plans to propose significant wage in- creases, Clay said. The union will also look at how workers are scheduled and how many hours they get. Right now, too many can’t get more than part-time hours, Clay said. And the union wants schedules + ( employees and closing stores. On Sept. 8, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Haggen has said it’s closing stores because there are no interested buyers. But posted with 21 days notice; cur- rently they’re posted on Thurs- days for the following week. The previous three-year con- tracts for the Portland and Bend areas expired in June and July, but their terms remain in effect, and it’s standard UFCW prac- tice to bargain after contract ex- piration. Last time, Local 555 was able to get the Portland and Bend contracts to expire before its contracts elsewhere in the state, to give the biggest bargaining unit a chance to set standards to be adopted elsewhere. Those other contracts all come up for renewal over the next 14 months, and local union repre- sentatives from those units are observing the Portland and Bend talks. The two sides will next meet on Oct. 26 and 27. + ) UFCW leaders say there’s no sign Haggen looked for buyers. Haggen and Kroger-owned QFC have separate UFCW contracts from the Big 3. Union nominees sought for labor relations awards The Oregon chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Asso- ciation (LERA) is seeking nomi- nations of union stewards and of- ficers for its annual Maggie Awards. The awards recognize people who have achieved excel- lence in labor-management rela- tions. Individuals honored must have demonstrated integrity and commitment to the collective bar- gaining process, and have exten- sive experience in collective bar- gaining. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony following LERA’s annual conference Nov. 17 at the World Trade Center, 121 SW Salmon St., Portland. Nomination forms are avail- able at www.OregonLERA. com. For more information, email president@oregonlera.com.
