Grocery workers accept new contract (St Louis)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.stltoday.com/business/article_0e7cea79-1293-50d0-8623-8832e7badd7e.html

BY LISA BROWN

November 3, 2010 12:00 am

Union workers at St. Louis' three largest grocery chains approved a new three-year contract late Tuesday night that offers a 50-cent hourly raise and increases employee health insurance premiums.

More than 9,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655 have been working under contract extensions since their contract expired May 15.



The union workers from 104 stores include baggers, checkers, stockers and department managers at Schnuck Markets, Dierbergs Markets and Shop 'n Save stores on the Missouri side of the St. Louis area. The chains bargained together as the Greater St. Louis Food Employers Council. The contract does not include employees of stores in the Metro East, whose members belong to UFCW Local 881 in Chicago.

Local 655 members started trickling in to the machinist hall at 12365 St. Charles Rock Road in Bridgeton at 7 a.m. on their way to work, some clothed in work uniforms. Polls closed at 8 p.m.

Union members approved the contract by a vote of 2,234 to 360.

Judy Borgers, a Dierbergs employee at the Wildwood store, said the rising cost of insurance was the most important aspect of the contract.

FULL story at link.

[applegrove]

1. Good they got a raise. I worked with a guy who also had a job in a grocery store. Management had

him and his coemployees that they weren't making any money and needed union concessions. Glad to see an upbeat labour story.