Hi, I’m Jeff Traeger, president of UFCW Local 832 and the lead negotiator for this round of talks with Safeway.
Here to give you an update from crunch time, it is Wednesday, March the 16th today and we have been bargaining all day yesterday and all day today, and we’re at our training center here. We’re going to be bargaining well into the evening tonight.
We are down to the actual last few items and the most important ones to you. Those are things like your wages, the classification rates in the agreement, benefits, dental plan and how long of a contract we’re going to sign.
So our hope is that over the next two days, we can get the deal done. We’re working very hard to try to bring you the contract you deserve and your committee is dedicated to staying here as long as it takes to get that done. So we’re going to work late into this evening and all day tomorrow and potentially into tomorrow evening.
If we don’t manage to get to the finish line by then, we still have Saturday because that is the day your contract expires. And so we will bargain all day Saturday if we have to to get this thing done.
So I will have another update for you tomorrow on this website and then another one, potentially on Saturday. I hope to be bringing you good news of a tentative agreement. Keep your eye on the website and thank you for following your union throughout these very difficult negotiations.
Jeff Traeger
President UFCW Local 832