Grocery shopping may require the crossing of picket lines this holiday season.
Labor negotiations for a new contract between Safeway, Albertsons and Fred Meyer managements and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 union have produced almost no agreements, and union employees may strike before Thanksgiving, according to UFCW 555 spokesman Rick Sawyer. Key issues under negotiation are health benefits, pension contributions and wage increases.
The previous contract between the employers and the union expired in February.
The next, and probably final, round of talks will start today and run until Nov. 20. Sawyer said he is not optimistic.
“The end result is pretty dismal,” he said.
Melinda Merrill, spokeswoman for Northwest Food Employers Inc., the company representing Safeway, Albertsons and Fred Meyer, said the less change, the better.
“Employers want to retain their current employees,” she said. “They are the ones who are skilled.”
Merrill said the employers must change health care benefits to compete with nonunion companies like Wal-Mart, which has moved into the market and increased competition. Currently, the employers pay 100 percent of employee health benefits, and it takes six months for new employees to qualify for the plan. Under the new plan, members would pay a portion and it would take two years to qualify.

The new contract also proposes that new employees be 21 or older to receive pension benefits, while currently, there is no age requirement to receive benefits.
“The employers are discriminating against young people,” Sawyer said.
The UFCW 555 is also asking for a 50 cent per hour raise for all members, but the employers want to pay a lump sum, which would be five times less for full-time employees. Employers also want to nearly double the time it takes union members to reach “journeyman” status, which currently offers a wage increase after 5,200 hours of work.
Fred Meyer, Safeway and Albertsons are taking applications for temporary employees, but management hopes the issue is resolved and an agreement is reached, according to Merrill.
Many union members support a strike. Others are less sure, but hesitated in giving their names because they are worried about the repercussions of being a “strikebreaker.”
East 18th Avenue Safeway cashier Rebecca Natividad said if an agreement is not reached, a strike will be necessary.
“Safeway is trying to break the union, and they are starting in Eugene,” she said. “If (the employers) break the union, we will all be working at Wal-Mart without medical (benefits) and on food stamps.”
Some employees, however, are opposed to striking.
Safeway cashier and University junior Grant Leffler said he does not believe the union is calling a strike for the benefit of employees, but for a show of power. He said management would not agree to the union’s requests.
“Safeway (management) said that’s the best we could get, and if we went on strike, they would lessen benefits more,” he said.
Others are not sure. An Albertsons employee who would identify himself only as “Peter” said he has not been informed enough about the matter.
“It’s kind of foggy,” he said. “We are stuck in the middle of this conflict.”
The last Oregon grocery workers strike took place in Portland in 1994 and lasted for 88 days. The last one in Eugene was in 1979. Approximately 1,100 employees of Safeway, Albertsons and Fred Meyer are covered by UFCW 555 contracts in Eugene.