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In 2004, as negotiators haggled over a new union contract at two of
Maryland’s largest private employers, some spoke of possible strikes
involving thousands of workers at area stores run by grocers Giant Food
and Safeway.
A four-year contract was eventually signed, avoiding the kind of strike in Maryland that Safeway stores in California were involved in about that time. With the 2004 contract expiring March 30, the rhetoric this go-round has been more subdued. Searches on Google and LexisNexis did not turn up any news articles on the negotiations. Calls to union and company negotiators this week were not returned. Negotiations between United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 and officials with Giant and Safeway began Feb. 13, according to information on the union’s Web site. ‘‘Much preliminary work has been completed for Giant and Safeway members,” the site says. Meetings to ‘‘present, discuss and vote on the final offers” are scheduled for the morning of April 1 at the D.C. National Guard Armory in Washington, D.C., according to union information. Union members are being asked to bring registration cards to vote at that meeting. The contract talks are being combined with those conducted by UFCW Local 27 in Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore, officials said. Meetings to vote on the proposal are also slated for April 1 at the Baltimore Convention Center and American Legion Post 91 in Cambridge. The contract hammered out in 2004 covered about 18,000 Giant and Safeway workers in suburban Maryland, Washington and Northern Virginia, and 12,000 in the Baltimore area. Updated figures could not be obtained. UFCW Local 400 represents more than 40,000 workers in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington and Tennessee, but those include members from numerous other companies, including CVS pharmacies and Magruder’s grocery stores. Giant has about 13,400 employees in Maryland, and most workers belong to a UFCW local, said Jamie Miller, a Giant spokesman. The company ranks fifth in the number of employees in Maryland among private companies, according to a survey released last year by the state Department of Business and Economic Development. Miller referred questions about contract negotiations to attorney Harry Burton, who was also the chief negotiator for Giant and Safeway four years ago. Burton did not return calls. C. James Lowthers, president of UFCW Local 400, which is based in Landover, also did not return calls. Safeway ranked ninth in the number of employees in Maryland with 8,680, according to the state survey. Safeway executives could not be reached for comment. Medical insurance coverage was a key issue four years ago. Under that agreement, veteran employees kept their benefits, but insurance deductibles rose from $100 annually to $200 and the cap on out-of-pocket expenses increased from $2,500 to $4,000. New employees began paying higher deductibles until they were with the company for six years. Employees received a 35-cent-per-hour pay raise annually for four years and made concessions on overtime pay on Sundays. Royal Ahold NV of the Netherlands, the parent of Giant Food of Landover, reported Thursday that net income for 2007 more than tripled over 2006 to $4.5 billion. Sales inched up by 1 percent to $43.2 billion. Safeway, headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., recently reported that net income last year increased by 2 percent over 2006 to $888.4 million. Revenue increased 5.2 percent to $42.3 billion last year, while same-store sales jumped by 3.4 percent.
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