Grocery strike in S. Califonia - "tentative" agreement reached

[phoebe]

Sorry, no major details available at the moment.
on edit - to add "tentative" in order to report story correctly!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Sounded like it was heading that way..I hope so

[Democat]

2. I hope this is true!

Is it on the news?

[phoebe]

3. Heard a quick announcement on NPR a couple of minutes ago.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4390295/

snip

LOS ANGELES - Grocery clerks and three supermarket chains reached a tentative contract agreement Thursday that could bring an end to the longest supermarket strike in U.S. history and send 70,000 cash-strapped employees back to work.

Greg Denier, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, declined to disclose details of the agreement.

[pinniped]

4. Supermarkets, grocery clerks reach tentative contract deal

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/26/state2031EST0260.DTL

Supermarkets, grocery clerks reach tentative contract deal

ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer
Thursday, February 26, 2004


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(02-26) 18:24 PST LOS ANGELES (AP) --

Negotiators for three supermarket chains and grocery clerks reached a tentative contract agreement Thursday, creating hope that the longest supermarket strike in U.S. history would end and send 70,000 financially strapped employees back to work.

Greg Denier, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, declined to disclose details of the agreement.

The 41/2-month strike inconvenienced millions of shoppers in Southern California and led to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for the three grocery chains, which had taken a stand against rising employee health costs.

Officials with the union must submit the proposed contract to members for approval. It was not immediately known when they might end pickets and return to work. Voting could begin as early as Friday.

more:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/26/state2031EST0260.DTL

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Not enough details but we should assume once again the working men/women are getting a raw deal.

Strike Part Deux will be arriving in September.

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-022604strike_lat,1,1732648.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Tentative Deal Reached to End Grocery Strike

By James F. Peltz and Melinda Fulmer, Times Staff Writers

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snip-

Details of the pact weren't immediately available, but both sides came away with a contract that they could defend in light of a dispute that was extremely costly to both sides, according to people familiar with the settlement.

The stores accomplished such goals as installing a two-tier system of employee compensation, under which new hires would earn considerably less in wages and benefits than current employees, the sources said.

There also would be a cap on how much the supermarkets contribute to their employees' healthcare coverage, a change the stores aggressively sought in order to combat rising healthcare costs, they said. Until now, all of the workers' healthcare costs have been borne by the stores.

The union, meanwhile, persuaded the grocery stores to contribute more money into the workers' heathcare reserve fund, the sources said. The upshot of that move, they said, is that veteran grocery employees should not have to contribute to their healthcare coverage in the first two years of the contract, although they might have to pay some amount during the third year.

-snip
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[Ernesto]

5. Thanks for the Links!

Seems like fewer & fewer peopple bother to do any home work even here on LBN....... We should have a new forum titled "Latest Breaking Hearsay" since links are apparently no longer required by the mods.