W Post: Grocery Union Makes Push for Public Support (Contract Expires Tonight)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/28/AR2008032803496.html

By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 29, 2008; Page D01

The labor contract for Giant Food and Safeway employees expires tonight, and the workers union has spent the past week rallying public support as negotiations continue with the region's two largest supermarket chains.

Community groups have handed out leaflets in front of about two dozen stores and urged shoppers to contact company executives. At a news conference yesterday, several religious leaders called on their congregations to back the United Food and Commercial Workers union and boycott the chains if an agreement cannot be reached.

"This is a matter of simple justice," said the Rev. Morris Shearin, pastor of Israel Baptist Church in Northeast. "If Safeway and Giant want to take profits out of our community, they must do right by our community."

Union locals 400 and 27 represent about 23,000 grocery workers in the Washington and Baltimore regions. Union leaders have been in negotiations with the companies for more than a month. Talks are expected to continue through the weekend, and a vote by union membership on a new contract is scheduled for Tuesday at the D.C. Armory.

Bargaining has been slow, with health-care benefits, wages and pensions among the top issues. A source close to the negotiation said one sticking point is the companies' request that workers pay a monthly premium for their health insurance. Under the current contract, most employees do not have premiums but are required to pay a $200 annual deductible.

Local 400 President C. James Lowthers said in a statement yesterday that some progress had been made but that "significant hurdles" remain. The union has not ruled out a strike, he said, and has completed preparations for that scenario, making hundreds of picket signs and contacting police and elected officials.

FULL story at link.