The Safeway strike deadline for employees at 250 California locations is now midnight on Saturday.
A SALE FOR THE SUMMER! If a new labour agreement is not reached by midnight on Saturday, thousands of Safeway workers throughout the Bay Area may go on strike. If a new labour agreement is not reached by midnight on Saturday, thousands of Safeway workers throughout the Bay Area may go on strike. For the S.F. Chronicle/Minh Connors Thousands of Safeway workers in the Bay Area were on strike, but it was called off.
In order to allow negotiations for a new labour contract to continue past midnight Friday, their union representatives agreed to extend the deadline until midnight Saturday. As talks continued Saturday morning, the union warned that if no progress was made in the negotiations, workers might picket on Sunday. According to Local 5 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, the decision to postpone striking was made following "incremental progress" during contract negotiations with Safeway representatives and at the federal mediator's request. We value the support of the clients and the communities in which they operate and are attempting to negotiate a deal that prevents a work stoppage. UFCW 5
UFCW 648 President Dan Larson, UFCW 8 President Jacques Loveall, and President John Frahm issued a joint statement. "We will continue to bargain in good faith as long as negotiations are moving towards a fair deal, but our members are still mobilised and prepared." Jim Araby, a UFCW 5 spokesperson, stated that during Saturday's strike, employees from over 250 stores from Grapevine to the Oregon border would have left their jobs and joined picket lines outside. In a separate statement, Frahm said, "This is about fairness and respect for the essential workers who keep our stores running and our communities fed." "We hope that management is prepared to address the needs of their frontline employees when they come to the table."
For the past five months, labor unions representing more than 25,000 grocery employees in Northern California have been negotiating with the Bay Area’s largest grocery chain, demanding improvements in wages, scheduling, health care and pension funds for their employees A Safeway spokesperson said in a statement that the company remains “committed to productive, good-faith negotiations with the UFCW locals in Northern California” and that it had brought in a federal mediator earlier to help with negotiations. Ahead of the potential strike, Safeway released job openings online for temporary workers as early as a week ago. In one of their latest meetings with Safeway representatives on July 15 and 16, bargaining committees from UFCW 5, 8, and 648 were left again without any improved proposals, according
“The company clearly had no interest in addressing the issues important to our hard-working Safeway members in the high cost of living in Northern California,” the UFCW 5 news release stated. “The Unions have made it clear that after 5 months of bargaining, our members demand a fair contract now!” The unions immediately resumed meeting with Safeway representatives on July 23, demanding that they address their demands or face a strike, the new
