Washington state grocery workers narrowly avoid strike

SEATTLE — Less than 90 minutes before some 21,000 grocery workers were to strike in 260 stores in western Washington, a deal was reached Monday evening between the unions and management. 

The tentative agreement "continues to preserve good wages, secure pensions and access to quality, affordable health care for our employees," read an emailed statement from Scott Powers of Allied Employers, the grocery stores' representative.

No further details were available. Both sides said the proposal would not be released until workers had a chance to review and vote on it, according to The Associated Press. No dates have been announced for that vote.

A strike seemed imminent after months of unsuccessful contract talks between four grocery chains and the three unions representing cashiers, baristas, meat-cutters, cheese mongers, florists, stockers and other deli and floor workers, 57 percent of whom are women. On Friday evening, the unions — United Food and Commercial Workers Locals 21 and 367 and Teamsters Local 38 — notified Albertsons, Safeway, Fred Meyer and QFC that, after 72 hours, they would refuse to further extend the 2010 contract that had expired in May. In addition to the 21,000 workers directly affected, a new contract would set standards for about 9,000 additional employees at smaller grocers that maintain “me too” agreements with the unions.

Sunday night, bundled in winter coats, Jeannette Randall and her partner Dave Cummings joined a crowd of unionists, politicians and supporters at a 24-hour countdown rally in downtown Seattle. For 14 and 18 years respectively, Randall and Cummings, high school sweethearts, have worked for Safeway and raised two children on that income. They started at just above the minimum wage but now earn around $19.00 per hour, plus benefits like health insurance and an eventual pension.

“Without the union, we would all be having jobs just like Walmart. We’d be fired on the spot,” Cummings said. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn praised the workers for battling corporate interests in the face of rising income inequality.

The labor dispute has been seen as a bellwether of collective bargaining agreements in food retail. As one of the first contract battles to unfold after Obamacare — which requires larger employers to insure employees who work 30 or more hours per week — it may test whether businesses that previously offered health insurance to part-time workers will now “dump” those below the 30-hour-per-week cutoff onto the health care exchanges.

Pay is also at issue: UFCW and the Teamsters want to preserve “time and a half” compensation for Sundays and holidays and have sought to increase entry-level hourly pay from 10 to 25 cents above Washington state’s minimum wage (currently $9.19, the highest in the country).

Finally, observers will scrutinize the contract's sick leave provision. The unions have demanded paid sick days for all members, on par with Seattle’s citywide policy since September 2012 — the ability to take between 40 and 72 hours of accrued sick leave per year, depending on employer size.

Workers in this union-friendly region have received broad community support for their campaign. Last month, with limited progress in negotiations, the UFCW and Teamsters locals launched a “Stand With Our Checkers” website and Facebook page, garnering over 25,000 online followers. The website also included a map of alternative, independent groceries and pharmacies that customers could patronize in case of a strike, which had been approved by 98 percent of union members.

This community-based strategy, and the early decision to target all of the big grocery chains, reflects lessons learned from UFCW’s massive, failed 2003-04 strike in Southern California. That four-month strike and lockout of 59,000 grocery store workers was widely seen “as labor’s greatest defeat since the 1981 air traffic controllers’ strike,” according to labor sociologist Ruth Milkman.

“It was a real wakeup call for (UFCW). They’ve come a long way since that time. Everybody respects what they’re now doing on Walmart,” she said, referring to the grassroots, nationwide strikes organized by the OUR Walmart campaign.

Just as with OUR Walmart, CEO pay was a key concern for the unions during negotiations. “They’re making $11, $9 million a year plus all kinds of options,” said Steve Williamson, community affairs director for UFCW Local 21. “They have the wherewithal to pay, so they shouldn’t be taking advantage of the (Obamacare) system. They should be helping to provide health insurance for folks, like they’ve been doing.”

Safeway, a publicly traded Fortune 100 company, had annual sales of $38 billion in 2012. The Kroger company, which owns QFC and operates Fred Meyer stores in the Pacific Northwest, reported $96.8 billion in sales during the same period. In March of this year, Albertsons was purchased as part of a $3.3 billion deal by the private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.

At the Sunday night rally, four employees from a Seattle Safeway branch discussed company profits in relation to their hourly earnings. “What’s upsetting is how much we’ve given up over the last five contracts,” said Alan Stephenson, a veteran retail clerk. “We’ve made so many concessions.”

He and his coworkers were ready to go on strike, and had made contingency plans. “One friend offered me a place to stay. Another will pay my cellphone bill," Stephenson said. "And I’ll apply for part-time jobs until I can come back."