UFCW Local 555 ratifies Portland grocery pacts

After 18 months of contentious bargaining, grocery workers, meat cutters and checkout clerks in the Portland metropolitan area ratified new collective bargaining agreements Jan. 23 with their employers — Kroger, Albertsons, and Safeway.

The roughly 6,000 workers are members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555. Grocers bargain jointly as Food Employers Inc. on separate contracts representing grocery workers, and meat cutters at all stores, as well as central checkout clerks (CCK) at Fred Meyer, which is owned by Kroger.

Union officials did not release the exact vote count, but said the grocery contract passed on Jan. 23 by a 90 percent margin, the meat cutters contract passed by an 84 percent margin, and CCK passed by an 85 percent margin.

Several smaller independent stores such as Kroger-owned QFC will come in under the terms of the new pact.

The contract is retroactive to July 26, 2008. The new expiration date is July 28, 2012.

Journey-level employees will receive a lump-sum payment of 25 cents for every hour worked over the past 12 months, with apprentices receiving 15 cents an hour over the same time period. Effective Feb. 1, 2010, journey-level employees will get a pay raise of 25 cents an hour, followed the next year by a lump-sum payment of 25 cents for every hour worked. Journey-level employees will get another quarter an hour on their check starting Feb. 1, 2012.

Apprentices will receive wage step increases of up to 75 cents per hour over the term of the contract.

Employers agreed to pick up the first 7.3 percent increase each year in health insurance premiums. Any increases over that amount will be paid by workers.

Employees may volunteer to work Christmas Day, but can’t be scheduled to work.

“The entire labor community helped us get this contract,” Steve Konopa, Local 555 grievance director, told delegates at the Jan. 25 Northwest Oregon Labor Council meeting. “We can’t thank you enough.”

In a separate vote held Jan. 29, grocery workers and meat cutters at Safeway stores in Bend, Redmond and Madras ratified new contracts. There are approximately 200 union members involved.

“It’s slightly different from Portland’s, but it follows basically the same pattern,” said Local 555 Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Anderson.

Portland and Central Oregon bargaining teams negotiated together for several months prior to the ratification voting.

Talks will continue for grocery, meat and CCK employees at Fred Meyer and Albertsons stores in Bend, Redmond and Madras. Because bargaining is ongoing, union officials did not release ratification vote numbers at Safeway.

Meantime, a separate five-year contract covering “non-food” retail workers at Portland area Fred Meyer stores expires in June. And non-food employees at The Dalles Fred Meyer still are seeking a first contract. They voted overwhelmingly to be represented by Local 555 in November 2007. Grocery workers at The Dalles Fred Meyer are members of Local 555.

Several unfair labor practice complaints filed by the union against Fred Meyer remain pending.

In October 2009, three union officials, including President Dan Clay and International Rep Jenny Reed were arrested and charged with trespassing at the Hillsboro Fred Meyer store. Union officials were at the store updating their members on the status of contract negotiations and an employer health care proposal, and gathering signatures from them for a petition to deliver at the next round of bargaining.

UFCW filed ULP charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging that Fred Meyer broke federal labor law by banning reps from talking to employees while they were working.

A separate ULP was filed against the Cully Albertsons store in Northeast Portland.

As a result of those incidences, the new contract specifies that union reps can meet with employees. For the most part, that interaction must take place in break rooms. A clause in the contracts that commits the union not to take any action to depart from the “good faith working relationship” it has with its employers. The contract also says the union won’t be a party to, instigate, or support harassment of any employer through any type of corporate campaign, and won’t strike or use “other economic weapons” to settle disagreements about how to interpret the contract — including informational picketing, and unfair or Do Not Patronize listings of central labor councils.UFCW Local 555 was ramping up its community outreach as negotiations dragged on. In fact, a candlelight vigil had been slated for Feb. 2 at Hollywood Fred Meyer.