UFCW 8-Golden State Reaches Tentative Agreement with Safeway and Vons in Northern and Central California

ROSEVILLE, Calif.– UFCW 8-Golden State is pleased to announce it has reached an excellent new tentative agreement with Safeway and Vons in Northern and Central California.

“At the bargaining table we were able to build on the key achievements of decades of Union Solidarity,” said Jacques Loveall, president of UFCW 8-Golden State. “This contract is one of our best ever, a big ‘win’ for Union members.”

The three-year agreement includes improved funding of pension benefits, enhanced health care benefits with no employee premiums, and meaningful wage increases, Loveall said.

Details of the tentative agreement will be mailed to affected Safeway and Vons members in a special edition of the Union’s Voice of Action magazine. This publication also will include a mail-in secret ballot so members can vote to ratify their new contract.

No details will be released until members have had the opportunity to review and ratify the tentative agreement. Ballots will be counted and results of the member vote will be released in mid-August.

The Union strongly recommends a “yes” vote.

Negotiations are continuing between UFCW 8-Golden State and other major supermarket companies in the region, including Save Mart/Lucky/FoodMaxx/Maxx Value and Raley’s/Bel Air/Nob Hill/Food Source. UFCW 8-Golden State is also in continued negotiations with its sister UFCW local unions in Southern California on behalf of its members in that region.

UFCW 8-Golden State represents some 35,000 members who work in grocery and drug stores, food-processing plants, distilleries, medical facilities and offices from the Oregon border in the north to Kern County in the south.