Giant, Safeway Workers Ink Tentative Pact With Unions

Workers at Ahold USA division Giant-Landover and Safeway in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore metropolitan areas represented by United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Locals 400 and 27 have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with the supermarket chains. The vote on whether to ratify the contract is scheduled for Tuesday, April 3.

Describing the negotiations on wages and health and retirement benefits as “long and difficult,” Tom McNutt, president of Landover, Md.-based Local 400, noted, “It was our members’ activism in reaching out to customers and the community, and their unbreakable solidarity throughout this challenging period that made this agreement possible.”

According to McNutt: “Our members will be the first to review the proposed contract’s details. That will take place at the ratification meeting, where they will have the opportunity to ask questions, discuss its terms, debate whether or not it should be approved, and then vote on it. This is a democratic process, and they will determine their own future.”

The workers’ current contract, which expires March 31, will be extended until the ratification vote takes place.

Local 400 represents 40,000 members working in the retail food, health care, retail department store, food-processing, service and other industries in Washington, D.C.; Maryland; Virginia; West Virginia; Ohio; Kentucky; and Tennessee. Towson, Md.-based Local 27 represents more than 20,000 workers in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Safeway is based in Pleasanton, Calif.