UFCW 21<\/a>, announced the vote results Thursday morning. Workers in King, Snohomish, Kitsap and Pierce counties voted over the last several days about whether to authorize a strike.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nBargaining talks will resume on Oct. 10 and 11, said UFCW 21 spokesman Tom Geiger on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Our expectation is that they will come with a set of serious proposals,” Geiger said in an email.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Before any strike, the union must give 72-hours notice to employers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Management is still proposing a contract that would cut pay (including holiday pay) and cut benefits (including elimination of health care coverage for those working less than 30 hours a week), according to UFCW 21. About 30,000 workers are represented by three unions UFCW 21, UFCW 367 and Teamsters 38, whose bargaining teams recommended the strike vote.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Scott Powers, the lead negotiator for Allied Employers, which represents Albertsons, Fred Meyer, QFC and Safeway, said in an email Thursday he expected talks to resume.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Scott Powers, the lead negotiator for Kirkland-based Allied Employers, which represents Albertsons, Fred Meyer, QFC and Safeway, said in an email Thursday he expects to be at the bargaining table soon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“A strike authorization vote is not unusual,” Powers said. “The important thing is that we get back to the bargaining table and do the hard work of putting a negotiated settlement together. The employers are focused on reaching agreement on a fair contract that is in the best interests of their associates, customers and businesses.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Grocery store workers have been in contract negotiations since March.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope the employers come to their senses and make a fair proposal that respects me and my co-workers and our families,” said Jessica Roach, a Fred Meyer worker, at a Thursday press conference at UFCW 21 headquarters in Seattle. “But if they force us to strike, we are ready.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Grocery workers in four counties in Western Washington gave a 98 percent approval to authorize a strike against Fred Meyer, Safeway, QFC and Albertsons stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-17447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17447"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}