The union is seeking a wage increase of 55 cents an hour each year over the life of the contract (Can$1 = US$.72). Safeway proposes a lump sum payment of $1,000 and total wage increase of $1.40 an hour over the course of a five-year pact. Workers earn between $8.75 and $21 per hour. The union is also fighting to increase benefits for workers with more than four years’ seniority and to bring pharmacy workers’ wages into line with those of cashiers, among other issues.

In April, 98 percent of the unionists voted to authorize a strike if the Safeway bosses wouldn’t agree to their demands. On July 26 union members voted by a 75 percent majority to set a strike deadline of August 4. On August 3 the talks restarted.

On August 6 and 7 workers carried out rotating strikes at Safeway stores in Vancouver and Richmond. The local includes 4,700 members who work at Canada Safeway at 49 grocery stores in the lower mainland and Fraser Valley in British Columbia. The union negotiating committee suspended the rotating strikes pending the August 13 vote.

Some 1,200 members of UFCW Local 247 who work in Safeway’s meat, seafood, and deli departments have announced that they will join picket lines in the event of a strike or lockout. During their contact fight the workers have leafleted to build support for their struggle in front of several Safeway stores. The Safeway contract is traditionally the pattern-setter for contracts in the British Columbia retail food industry. Thousands of members of Local 1518, which is an amalgamated local, and Local 247 are in negotiations with Save-On-Foods and the Real Canadian Superstore and will be following the Safeway fight closely.  
 
 
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