Southern California grocery workers avoid strike, approve contract

[TexasTowelie]

Grocery workers voted Monday to approve a new union contract that covers employees at nearly 100 San Diego County stores.

The three-year agreement approves modest raises, keeps current health care plans in place and gives employees longer notice about work schedules, the United Food & Commercial Workers union said.

Union officials said Monday night that the workers had voted by a wide margin to approve the new contract, although they said a final tally would not be available until later in the week.

The deal affects roughly 47,000 workers in Southern California, including 10,000 in San Diego County, at Ralphs and Albertsons, which also operates Vons, Pavilions and Safeway stores.

Read more: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/aug/08/ufcw-grocery-strike-avoided/

Another article: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-grocery-contract-20160808-snap-story.html

Cross-posted in Omaha Steve's Labor Group.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. This is basically good news for everyone.

The last strike hurt everyone, labor and management.

[TexasTowelie]

2. A little bit of sense and sensibility

does a lot of good for everyone. I'm sure that they would have liked to see larger pay raises, but the stability of having jobs and a workforce to provide service for the customers is also important.

[Sherman A1]

3. Yes,

I thought the comments in the article from the San Diego source to be especially telling, regarding the benefits of higher paid, long term workers vs the trend of lower compensated workers not being nearly as effective and resulting in higher turnover rates, something that I have argued for years.