The supermarket bosses won the bulk of what they wanted in the new three-year deal.

The contract contains a steep two-tier wage and benefit setup—a major goal of the grocery chains from the beginning—that weakens the union by creating two classes of workers. New hires will earn significantly lower wages—from $1.12 to $2.80 less an hour—and, under this contract, they will not reach the wage levels of current workers. For the newly hired workers, payments for health benefits will be introduced. Although some union officials spoke out against the two-tier arrangement, it was never featured as an issue in the same way as the fight to defend health-care benefits.

With the high turnover in the grocery industry, “the two-tiered system could save the supermarkets tens of millions of dollars over the three-year life of the contract,” according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

There are no wage increases in the contract. Grocery workers will receive a ratification bonus of 15 to 30 cents an hour for time worked in the past year. This will not amount to much, as some 75 percent of the grocery workers are part-time.

The union accepted concessions on health-care coverage. It will take longer for new hires to qualify for benefits and they will pay a portion of their health-care premiums. Current workers will not pay premiums for the first two years of the contract. In the third year, however, coverage will be capped at $4.60 an hour, which could mean workers would pay as much as $60 a month toward family health insurance.

The chains also won concessions on pension benefits, which will be cut for both new hires and current employees.

As workers went to vote, UFCW International president Doug Dority said the pact crowned “one of most successful strikes in history.” According to a March 1 Reuters dispatch, a union spokeswoman said the contract was approved by an 86 percent margin.

Most workers voted for the contract but did so with little enthusiasm. Some thought they had given up too many concessions. “Basically, for all those months that we were there on strike, we should’ve gotten a better deal,” said Armando Montes, who was voting in Hollywood, California. Others were tired of being on strike. “I got to eat, man,” said Oscar Karillo, a worker from Pavillions, which is owned by Safeway. “I have a wife and two kids. Whatever it is I’m going to take it.”

Despite the deep concessions, Mickey Kasparian, president of Local 135 in San Diego, told the Tribune-Union he was “ecstatic with everything we did with pension and welfare.” He said “the current members were our soldiers. We were going to protect our soldiers.”

A statement from the grocery bosses said the contract “squarely addresses the challenging health-care costs and competitive issues we face” and that they were “very pleased to have reached this agreement and at the prospect of seeing our employees return to work.”

A two-tier system that creates a new class of workers with lower pay and benefits went against the grain for quite a few workers. Some said that the two-tier setup was not consistent with what they had asked of shoppers—not to cross the picket line because they had been fighting for all workers, not just themselves. “It is not right for some workers not to have the same wages and medical coverage as others,” said Antonio Moreno, a Vons worker from San Pedro.  
 
 
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