Safeway agrees to tentative agreement to prevent worker strike

MARTINEZ — Hours before thousands of Safeway workers across the Bay Area were set to strike, workers for UFCW Local 5 and UFCW Local 648 agreed to a tentative agreement with the company Saturday that would guarantee higher wages and improved benefits for workers.

If union members ratify the agreement, it would end five months of negotiations and the looming concern of how a strike by 16,000 union workers could impact operations at over 100 Safeway grocery stores across the Bay Area.

“Our members stood together — strong and unshakable — they secured a contract that reflects their value and delivers real improvements for their families and futures,” said UFCW Local 5 President John Frahm and UFCW Local 648 President Dan Larson in a joint statement. “This is a hard-earned and inspiring victory.”

Just days before, union officials said negotiations were making “incremental progress” toward a deal as the deadline for a scheduled strike grew closer. Momentum for a strike had grown in the past month as the union flexed its labor power with two picket lines outside of Safeway stores in Pleasant Hill and Burlingame.

“If there’s no deal by midnight Friday, July 25, we’re ready to strike. This fight is about dignity and respect for the workers who kept our communities going,” the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 5, posted on Instagram.

Relief for Safeway came early Saturday morning when a federal monitor for the negotiations requested a deadline extension for the grocery store’s contract negotiations, stopping workers from striking at all 243 stores in California, according to the company’s website.

With the tentative agreement, Safeway, which is headquartered in Pleasanton, agreed to wage increases, a strengthened pension plan, more fair scheduling to enhance worker’s quality of life, increased company contributions to health care, and enhanced job protection, according to a union press release. Full details of the agreement will not be publicized until after union ratification.

Union leaders will be scheduling ratification votes in the coming days. They have confidence that union members will approve the deal.

“To every customer, ally, and elected leader who stood by our side—this win belongs to you, too,” Frahm and Larson added. “Bay Area communities made it clear: grocery workers deserve more than thanks—they deserve a fair deal. Because of your support, we won one together.”