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More Grocery Wars

Filed under: Imported

The next front in the supermarket wars will take place in the Washington, D.C. area. This Tuesday, 18,000 workers at area Safeway and Giant stores, which control roughly half the local market, will vote on whether to accept a new four-year contract. If the pact is rejected, the members of UFCW Local 400 could vote to strike. The supposed bogeyman in this dispute is not specifically Wal-Mart, but rather "non-union stores."

Today's Washington Post lays out the parameters of the conflict but is short on specific details.

Giant and Safeway, arguing that they need to trim labor costs to compete with nonunion stores in the region, have zeroed in on three major issues: wages, pension contributions and health care costs.

[Harry Burton, lead negotiator for the two supermarket chains,] said the stores and the union have reached several tentative agreements, but each "is contingent on the entire package." In the first round of talks, Giant and Safeway asked the union to accept cuts in Sunday pay and vacation time for new workers, according to a copy of the proposal.

Oh Great: only wages, health care, and pensions are in dispute! Given that the UFCW was financially devastated by the just concluded five-month grocery strike in Southern California, and given that Safeway proved itself a ruthless negotiator in that dispute, it's difficult to imagine that the union will actually go on strike. Most likely scenario: in order to preserve their wages and benefits, current employees will sell out future hires--just as ultimately happened in California. 

(Although as this L.A. Times story makes clear, Safeway chairman Stephen Burd didn't come out of the strike completely unscathed.)

Posted by Paul Demko at March 27, 2004 12:02 PM

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