September 16

September 16, 2008

Negotiations continue in Portland

Negotiations continued September 16, 2008, at 10:15 a.m. between approximately 5200 workers in Grocery, Meat, and Combination Food/Non-Food Checkout (CCK) represented by UFCW Local 555 in Portland and the employers, The New Albertsons, Inc., Fred Meyer, Inc. (Kroger), and Safeway, Inc. UFCW Local 555 went back through some of their proposals from the July 26th bargaining session and explained their position on those proposals.

The session did go into the afternoon with the bargaining committee introducing a new proposal stating, "The Employer agrees that it will not reduce the hours of current employees for the sole purpose of giving hours to new employees."

The session broke off but not before confirmation of the next dates for bargaining. Negotiations are next schedules for October 21, October 28, November 10, and November 11 with plans to discuss Health and Welfare language at the next bargaining session.