Supermarket workers in California will be back on the job as early as this week after approving a contract over the weekend and ending their 20-week strike against Safeway Stores and lockouts at Kroger Co. and Albertsons stores.
Last weekend, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union voted to approve the three-year contract with all three grocers. The contract passed by an 86% margin, Reuters reported.
The strike and lockout affected 900 stores and cost grocers an estimated $1 billion-plus in lost sales.
Employees continue to get healthcare coverage—the main point of contention—but will have to pay for it for the first time. Current union members pay no contribution to healthcare for the first two years, then pay $5 to $15 a week in the third year, only if there’s a shortfall in current reserves, per Reuters. New union members (hired after Oct. 5, when the old contract expired) will pay $9 a week for healthcare and make a lower hourly wage than current members. Grocers will pay 65% into pensions for current members and new members will get 35%.
The contract covers 70,000 UFCW members. About 60,000 have been on strike since mid-October.
An antitrust suit filed against the supermarkets by California’s Attorney General will move forward. The AG’s office was expected to have grocers’ first response to the suit yesterday, a spokesperson told PROMO.
The suit, filed in early February, charges that the grocers’ mutual aid pact violates antitrust laws because it included Food 4 Less, a Kroger division not affected by the strike, and the pact extended for two weeks after the end of the strike, enabling grocers to keep prices artificially high to make up for profits lost during the strike.
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