Unions Reach 11th-Hour Settlement With Save Mart
A strike that would have involved 10,000-plus grocery workers at The Save Mart Companies' Save Mart, Lucky and FoodMaxx supermarkets in Northern and Central California was avoided when union and management negotiators came to a tentative contract agreement this morning at 1:30 a.m. PST. The deal was reached after days of intensive round-the-clock negotiations in the presence of federal mediator Isael Hermosillo, according to UFCW 8-Golden State and UFCW Locals 5, 648 and 770.
The locals said that they would submit the agreement to union members for review, recommending ratification. Details of the tentative agreement won’t be released until all union members have had the chance to ratify it, they added, but Local 770 did note that the new three-year agreement includes annual wage increases, a Sunday premium for long-term employees, improved pension benefits and more staffing at checkouts, among other provisions.
Jacques Loveall, president of UFCW 8-Golden State; John Frahm, president of UFCW Local 5; Dan Larson, president of UFCW Local 648; and Kathy Finn, president of UFCW Local 770 offered their thanks to the UFCW International Union, the California Labor Federation and all of the regional labor councils and other organizations in Northern and Central California for supporting Save Mart/Lucky/FoodMaxx Union members, as well as thanking union members themselves.
In other labor news, workers who deliver packages from seven Amazon facilities across the United States went on strike on the morning of Dec.19, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that represents them, as reported in The New York Times. The newspaper noted that three of the seven hubs are in Southern California while the rest are in the New York City borough of Queens, New York; Atlanta; San Francisco; and Skokie, Ill., near Chicago. Amazon has said it doesn’t have to bargain with the drivers, since they’re not its employees, but the union and the workers countered that Amazon ultimately controls their working conditions and therefore should bargain with them, according to the Times.
Modesto, Calif.-based Save Mart Companies comprises 194 Save Mart, Lucky, and FoodMaxx stores. California’s largest regional, full-service grocery chain has more than 12,000 associates. The company is No. 53 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Seattle-based Amazon is No. 2 on The PG 100. PG also named the company one of its Retailers of the Century.
