More than 27,000 clerks and meatcutters from Giant Food and Safeway agreed to new four-year labor contracts earlier this month. Unlike in 2019, when both chains and United Food and Commercial Workers Locals 400 (Washington area) and 27 (Baltimore area and the Eastern Shore) crafted a new pension plan to replace the grossly underfunded ($1.1 billion in liabilities with the risk of oncoming insolvency) original FELRA (Food Employers Labor Relations Association) trust, these negotiations focused primarily on wage increases.
UFCW members felt that the risks they faced in the stores, coupled with a spiraling rate of inflation over the past three years, warranted a major wage boost from both chains. And even though bargaining was slow at the outset and a strike authorization vote was approved at one point, all parties ultimately agreed on a comprehensive 48-month deal. After a vote, the contracts were authorized on November 6.
In the new agreement, top-rated food clerks who were hired prior to March 5, 2020, the official signing of the last agreement, will get annual raises of $1.10 per hour the first year and $1.00 per hour each subsequent year.
For full-time and part-time service clerks hired on or after March 5, 2020, their annual wage increases will be $0.50, $0.30, $0.30 and $0.25 cents an hour consecutively per year of the contract.
Additionally, department heads will receive an additional $0.25 per hour for the first two years. Bakery, pharmacy floor, front end seafood and the pickup managers (Giant only), a new classification will see their hourly pay raised from $19.00 to $20.00. Meat, grocery, deli and produce managers will receive a $0.50 hourly pay bump to $21.00.
There were no changes in healthcare coverage for the life of the contract, and no increases in premium, co-pays or deductibles.
However, both Giant and Safeway will experience about a 19 percent premium increase over the four-year deal for full-time “tier 1” employees, who represent the most tenured associates for each retailer. For “tier 1” part-time associates, the premium contributions will increase approximately 65 percent.
Vacation policies remained intact from the previous deal in all classifications except for those associates who have achieved 12 years of employment. Those clerks and meatcutters will now qualify for four weeks of paid vacation, a reduction of one year from the previous pact.
After the 2019 agreement which created a new pension plan, there were a few tweaks made going forward with the new agreements. During the first year of the contract, at the request of either party, the companies and unions will meet to discuss the merger of the variable annuity funds for each retailer into one multi-employer plan and/or termination of the excess plan to yield savings from PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) premiums and administrative expenses with the goal of reallocating expenses to benefit improvements. The raise variable annuity plan ceiling will be raised from nine percent to 10 percent. Both Giant Food and Safeway will be required to make monthly contributions to the fund.
Going into the bargaining, both sides made it clear that, fueled by the large increase in retail theft and organized crime, employee safety needed to be addressed in the new contracts. As such, Locals 400 and 27 and Giant and Safeway have agreed to meet at the request of either party to discuss training, procedures and protocols to protect employees in case of a shooting or other violent attack or emergency that can affect employee safety.
The four-year contract officially runs from October 29, 2023 through October 30, 2027.