April 29, 2005

After two days of voting on Thursday April 28th and Friday the 29th, UFCW Local 1116 members from both the grocery and meat bargaining units voted to approve the tenative settlements. 

The new contract takes effect April 30th, 2005.

The Local 1116 Bargaining Committee for the Area Retail Grocery Agreement.

Bargaining continued at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27th and concluded at 8:00 a.m. in the morning on Thursday, April 28th with a tentative agreement.  The grocery and meat bargaining committee unanimously voted to recommend the settlement.

The settlement is not a cause for jubilation.  The committee sees it as an opportunity to work with your employers to take on the supercenters that have already opened and the 3 that are planned for the future.  Supercenters do not offer wage and benefit packages anywhere close to what UFCW Local 1116 members enjoy.

The new contract protects employees in the area of healthcare (no premium copays), improves the pension, with very modest wage increase.  It took until the last minute to get the employers to leave Sunday, nights and holiday premiums in the contract. 

The big impact is on new hires.  There are changes in vacation, holiday, pension, and health care areas.  Without these changes the employer claims competing with the new supercenters is impossible. 

The committee swallowed hard and agreed.  On this web page is a presentation of the devastating effects supercenters have on the retail grocery industry.  Feel free to click here to look at the data.