Grocery talks showing little progress.

Byline: EDWARD RUSSO The Register-Guard

Major progress remained elusive Wednesday for negotiators representing labor and management at Lane County's Safeway, Albertsons and Fred Meyer grocery stores.

About 1,200 employees of the three supermarket chains have been working without a contract since February.

Nine previous bargaining sessions proved fruitless, raising the possibility that if an agreement is not reached, workers could strike soon during a busy time of year for grocery stores.

As of Wednesday evening - after three straight days of bargaining at the DoubleTree Hotel in Springfield - there had been lots of talk but no breakthrough agreement on the major issues, officials for the two sides said.

"I would say the discussions and the dialogue have been more encouraging in the last three days than the last 10 months," said Rick Sawyer, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 555. "But I certainly wouldn't characterize it as a progress because we don't have a deal."

"They are still a ways apart," said Melinda Merrill, a spokeswoman for the three grocery chains, who collectively bargain through Tigard-based Northwest Food Employers Inc.

Meetings were to continue into Wednesday evening. Both sides said that if an agreement was not reached, negotiators could agree to meet again. Sawyer said there also is the possibility of a strike.

As of early Wednesday evening, with the outcome of the negotiations still in doubt, he said, a strike remained a possibility, not a probability.

In August, union members, impatient with employers' demands and the lack of progress, voted to authorize a strike.

The three grocery chains are trying to lower expenses because of spiraling health care costs and competition in Lane County from such nonunionized competitors as Winco Foods, Costco and Market of Choice. In addition, Safeway, Albertsons and Fred Meyer are bracing for more competition from Wal-Mart, which is expected to add 70,000-square-foot grocery stores at its west Eugene and Springfield discount outlets in the next couple of years.

The strategy of Albertsons, Safeway and Fred Meyer alarms union leaders, who say the employers are trying to co-exist with the discount stores, including Wal-Mart, by extracting wage and benefit concessions from their own workers. The contract covers wages and benefits for grocery clerks and meat cutters at Safeway and Albertsons, and those employees, plus checkstand workers at Fred Meyer. Major differences separating the two sides are proposed changes in pension contributions, medical insurance and wages.

In the expired contract, for example, the employers paid all of full-time employees' health insurance premiums, but employers now want workers to share part of the premium cost.

Employers also wanted to create a two-tier wage structure in which new employees would receive lower compensation, including a health care plan that costs employers less.

To prepare for a possible strike, the stores have been seeking temporary workers, who would be hired if food clerks and meat cutters walk off the job.