Union vote clears strike off table.

Byline: EDWARD RUSSO The Register-Guard

With a collective sigh of relief, union employees of Lane County's largest grocery stores on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a new labor contract, ending the possibility of a strike.

Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 555 voted by a 3-to-1 margin to accept the contract from Safeway, Albertsons and Fred Meyer. The five-year pact, reached after union and company negotiators spent the previous three days hammering out differences on wages and benefits, affects about 1,200 workers throughout the county.

If union members had rejected the proposed contract on Sunday, workers would have gone on strike today, hoisting picket signs in front of the three companies' Lane County stores during a busy week for food shopping.

"I don't think anybody wanted to go on strike, but I would have been willing if they had not been able to reach an agreement," said Greg Taylor, a 25-year Safeway employee in Eugene. "Considering the times, we pretty much felt that we had to give up a little bit."

Grocery clerks approved the contract 396-116, a 77 percent majority. About 75 percent of meat cutters approved a similar contract, union spokesman Rick Sawyer said.

All parties agreed that negotiators were motivated by the prospect of a strike, which would have caused hardship on both sides.

"I think everybody did everything they could to avoid a strike," said Melinda Merrill, spokeswoman for the companies' Tigard-based bargaining representative, Northwest Food Employers Inc. "There has been some relief for the employers, and the employees, we hope they think they have a good contract as far as health and wages go."

Union members voted on the contract during two meetings Sunday at the DoubleTree Hotel in Springfield. Many of the shelf stockers, produce clerks, meat cutters, checkstand clerks and other workers were visibly relieved after casting their votes.

"I got a little girl due in January," said Ryan Pullar, a produce clerk at a Safeway in Springfield. "I was worried. My wife and me were stressing big time."

The store workers had been without a contract since February. Negotiations began in May, but proved fruitless. Albertsons, Safeway and Fred Meyer wanted to hold down costs in the face of rapidly rising health care costs and increased competition from nonunion stores. The employers had asked workers to make concessions on benefits and to accept lower wage increases than the previous contract.

Last Wednesday, with the union threatening a strike by Friday, a federal mediator recessed the talks. However, both sides agreed to accept help from the Washington, D.C.-based Joint Labor Management Committee. Since Thursday, the committee's executive director had acted as an intermediary in telephone negotiations between high-ranking officials at UFCW and top executives at Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger, Fred Meyer's parent firm, union spokesman Sawyer said.

Negotiations on Saturday lasted through the night, concluding at 6 a.m. Sunday, just three hours before union members gathered at the DoubleTree for the first of two meetings.

Health insurance was the most important item on the negotiating table, Sawyer said. The grocery chains currently pay 100 percent of the premium, and wanted employees to pick up a share of the cost.

The compromise, proposed by the union and accepted by the employers, is that employees would begin to share the cost of health insurance premiums if premiums rise more than 8 percent a year. However, employers agreed to pay employees a medical benefit bonus that will prevent employees from digging into their own pocket until those costs rise above 21 percent a year, Sawyer said.

On wages, only employees with 2 1/2 years or more experience will receive pay raises during the next five years. Union officials estimate that about 30 percent of the 1,200 workers will be eligible for more pay.

The union agreed to accept two 25-cents-an-hour raises that will bring a so-called journeyman grocery clerk from the present $13.43 an hour, or $27,934 annually, to $13.93 an hour, or $28,974 a year, by 2007. On top of the hourly raises, employers agreed to pay journeymen two 25-cents-an-hour bonuses and one 20-cents-an-hour bonus, payable in lump sum amounts this year, next year and in 2005.

The union agreed to an employers' demand that will lengthen the time that it takes an employee to reach journeyman status. Instead of about 2 1/2 years, it will take about 3 3/4 years to reach senior status.

Workers said the mood within the stores had been tense for the past several weeks, especially after some stores began training possible replacement workers inside the stores.

`Management didn't want a strike any more than we did,' said Dan Beyh, a Eugene grocery clerk for Albertsons. `It was all between the big dogs rather than between us and the people we work with."

Ken Nickel, a union shop steward at the Thurston area Albertsons in Springfield, said the tension began to affect employees. One veteran worker's nerves were so jittery he went home sick after hearing a manager say that Albertsons would not back down from its original contract proposals, Nickel said.

`Up until this morning, it was the same,' he said. `Everybody was stressed out.'

Some workers voted no, saying that contract provisions were unfair and the raises too little.

Dan Podregger, a night stocker for Safeway in Eugene, voted against the contract, partly because of the requirement that new employees work longer than before to reach journeyman status.

Podregger, a journeyman at the top of the pay scale, said his raises and bonuses pale in comparison to the pay increases received by Safeway's top executives. "The bonuses are a joke," he said.

UNION, GROCERS AGREE ON NEW CONTRACT

Medical insurance: Employees agree to share some of the costs of rising health insurance premiums but no out-of-pocket expense until annual increases hit 21 percent.

Wages: Only journeymen employees, those with 2 1/2 years or more experience, eligible for raises. Raises include two 25-cents-an-hour raises, one immediately and one in 2004, plus three lump-sum bonuses.

Advancement: Union agrees to lengthen time it takes for employees to reach journeyman status to nearly 4 years.

Length of contract: Five years

CAPTION(S):

Dorothy DelCastillo Grazier (left) and Lewis Peters, Albertsons employees, vote on a new contract.