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Contract extension, mediation praised as positive steps in grocery talks

By Blanca Torres
Seattle Times business reporter

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A 4-1/2-month strike in Southern California that ended Feb. 29 and an 11-week Seattle-area grocery strike in 1989 have made both sides wary of a long conflict.

"I don't think they want to get into that anymore," said Ron Knox, a lawyer with Garvey Schubert Barer in Seattle who has mediated labor disputes for 24 years. "Both sides should get kudos for calling in a mediator at a relatively early stage."

United Food and Commercial Workers Locals 44, 81, 367, 381 and 1105, representing 25,000 employees, and the grocers involved — Albertsons, Safeway and Kroger-owned Fred Meyer and QFC — ended a third round of talks Friday night and agreed to meet again July 6 and 7. They extended the current contract through July 9, the third extension since it was to expire May 2.

Jeff Clark, a mediator from the Seattle regional office of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, will join talks July 6.

The main issue in the talks is health care. Currently, grocery companies pay 100 percent of workers' health-care insurance. Rates have risen about 73 percent in the three years since the last contract was approved, and grocers say they need workers to absorb some of the cost.

The employers have proposed cutting benefits by up to 30 percent, which the union says is too much. The union has proposed that workers pay $3 a week for single coverage and $10 a week for family coverage.

"It's not like the union doesn't know health-care costs are rising ... and it's not that the employers don't know their employees are being squeezed," Knox said. "It's just that neither side feels completely responsible for those costs."

For a resolution to occur, he said, each side must make concessions, and a mediator could help find options both can agree on. The mediator will have no authority to make decisions.

"A mediator is not a magician," said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in labor issues. While a mediator may not solve a conflict, he or she at least "gets some of the clutter out of the way."

Grocers' spokeswoman Melinda Merrill said a mediator will help talks go faster and easier.
 
"This is a very common step in labor negotiations," she said.

The companies are optimistic, Merrill said, and they feel they have agreed on such details as employee co-payments for medical care and contributions for health-plan costs.

Other issues, such as wages and health benefits overall, need to be resolved, Merrill said.

The union says talks haven't gone that well.

"We were not seeing progress," union spokesman Dan Kully said. "The two sides are extremely far apart, and the progress is extraordinarily slow."

Shaiken said the two sides probably would not have decided on a contract extension and mediation unless they thought they could reach an agreement by the end of the extension. At that point they have three options: another extension, more mediation or a strike.

"The bottom line is, if things were that bad, the union would declare an impasse and go on strike," Knox said.

"[Bringing in a mediator] is going to provide a better opportunity to reach an agreement, but nothing is guaranteed."

Blanca Torres: 206-515-5066 or btorres@seattletimes.com