Transcribed from President Traeger’s video:
Hi, I’m Jeff Traeger, president of UFCW Local 832 and the lead negotiator for your union, bargaining with Sobeys Capital Incorporated for our members working at Safeway and FreshCo stores.
I want to start this update by saying a huge thank you to our members working at Sobeys for the strike vote that you brought in over the weekend.
As you’re all aware, we have been going through an online strike vote due to the restrictions caused by COVID 19. And we had almost 900 of you get online and vote either online or by phone. And of those, 98.2% of you voted in favour of giving your committee a strike mandate.
This is huge for your committee. It gives us the ability to speak for all of you at the bargaining table when we sit down with the employer.
And speaking of that, back on February 23rd and 24th, we had two days at the bargaining table. Not as much progress as had been made in the past. I think the employer was aware we were taking a strike vote, so they did not spend a lot of effort bargaining those two days, but we do have four days starting up tomorrow, March first through the fourth and then another eight days of bargaining before your contract expires on March the 19th.
So we’ll get a good look this week at what your strike vote can accomplish at the bargaining table. We’ll also get our first look at the employer’s financial compensation package by the end of the week.
I will be back here for another update, so keep an eye on this website to stay informed.
Thank you.
Jeff Traeger
UFCW Local 832 President