Grocery workers ratify contract

Five months of intense negotiations will result in enhanced medical benefits, modest pay raises and better scheduling for union workers at Puget Sound-area Safeway, QFC, Fred Meyer and Albertsons stores, labor and management representatives said Tuesday.

Grocery workers, who voted from Sunday to Tuesday, overwhelmingly ratified a three-year deal that runs until May 2010. The pact, which gained 92 percent approval, covers more than 20,000 cashiers, clerks and meat department employees in the region, including King and Snohomish counties.

"This is a great contract for grocery workers," said Jackie O'Ryan, a spokeswoman for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21. "They set very strong, clear goals from the beginning that they wanted strong wage increases and health care to be more affordable, and they met those goals and more."

The deal gives labor stability to grocers, who will be able to "remain competitive in an increasingly tough retail environment," said Randy Zeiler, a key negotiator for the grocers.

O'Ryan also called the new medical plan a "breakthrough" as it will give employees more benefits at little to no cost. Zeiler said the plan would produce healthier and more productive employees.

Negotiations began in mid-March, and the new deal also covers Haggen and Metropolitan Market, smaller regional chains that have agreed to abide by the contract reached at the four big supermarket chains.

Highlights of the deal:

Fully covered in-network preventive care, which includes well-baby visits and immunizations, and 100 percent preventive dental coverage.

An employer-funded Health Reimbursement Account at $500 per member or $1,000 per family that employees can use for doctor visits, lab tests or X-rays. Unused money can be rolled over to the following year.

Insurance coverage for children of employees starting at the fourth month of employment instead of the 10th.

Same-sex domestic-partner benefits.

A $5 million wellness program, which can help employees with weight loss or to stop smoking. Any employee who voluntarily takes a personal health assessment will receive $50.

A prescription program that includes no co-payments for certain drugs and $5 co-payments for generic drugs.

Wage increases of up to $1.30 an hour over the three-year contract. The raise for this year is 50 cents an hour, and raises are retroactive to May 5, when the last contract expired.

Senior workers who have accumulated 160 hours of sick leave also can take a paid sick day on the first day they are ill. Previously, all employees received a paid sick day off on the third day they were gone. Employees who have not accumulated the 160 hours, which takes about four years, would remain under the old plan.

Workers also will receive more advance notice for weekly schedules.

They will be posted on a Tuesday for the following week instead of Thursday, and companies will post a two-week work schedule instead of the traditional one-week schedule.

O'Ryan said the contract is one of the best in the nation for grocery workers. "It's rather remarkable when most of corporate America is focused on growing profits by cutting health care benefits."