Grocery workers OK new contract

Puget Sound-area grocery workers overwhelmingly approved a three-year contract with Safeway; the parent companies of Albertsons, Fred Meyer and QFC; and a group of smaller grocery stores.

Union leaders said late Tuesday that 92 percent of voting members approved the contract, which they hailed as a victory after more than five months of negotiations.

The agreement covers more than 20,000 workers in three units of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

Negotiations were part of the UFCW International's 2007 campaign for more than 400,000 workers nationwide. Puget Sound-area organizers say they won the best contract of them all, thanks in part to elected officials and community and religious leaders who went to stores to show their support.

"From the beginning, we set very clear goals," Dave Schmitz, president of UFCW Local 21, said in a news release. "We met those goals — and more — without taking any steps backward."

Highlights from the new contract:

• Wage increases of up to $1.30 an hour during the three-year term of the contract. Increases are retroactive to the May 5 expiration date of the last contract.

• A new medical plan includes free preventive care for members who visit doctors in the plan's network. No deductibles or copays will be necessary for well-adult and well-child physicals, immunizations and flu shots.

• Same-sex domestic partners will be covered under the same medical-plan rules as married couples.

• Prescription-drug coverage improved, with workers paying up to $30 for generic drugs that used to carry copays of $5 to $40.

• Medical coverage for dependent children will begin during employees' fourth month of work rather than their 10th month.

• Employees at some stores will receive their work schedules five days to two weeks in advance. In the past, they were given three days' notice.

• A $5 million fund for wellness incentives, including $50 to any employee who voluntarily takes a personal health assessment in 2008. The program is meant to help workers stop smoking, manage their weight and deal with chronic conditions.

Negotiations ended Aug. 19, and union members voted on the proposed contract this week. The contract runs until May 2010.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com