Giant, Safeway's Baltimore/D.C. workers to vote Tuesday on new

With the threat of a strike looming, the United Food and Commercial Workers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with Giant Food and Safeway, the region's largest supermarket chains, to be voted on Tuesday at meetings in Washington, Baltimore and the Eastern Shore.

The announcement of a potential agreement was posted on the UFCW Local 27's and 400's Web sites one day after the workers' contract expired on Saturday night. Together, the union chapters represent about 23,000 workers in the Washington-Baltimore area.

Leaders from the union locals, negotiating together "for strength" and solidarity, according to Local 400's Web site, had been meeting with representatives from Giant and Safeway for more than a month. Leaders met on a daily basis the week leading up to the union contract expiration.

On Friday, UFCW Local 400 President C. James Lowthers reported to members in a Web update that "some progress was made, although significant hurdles still exist in order to reach a fair settlement."

Harry W. Burton, lead negotiator for Giant and Safeway, said Monday that a tentative agreement had been reached but declined to comment further "on the negotiations or content of the package out of respect for the process and the fact that the employees have not yet had their meetings."

Throughout the negotiations, the focus has been on health, welfare and pension benefits and wages.

According to UFCW Local 400, headquartered in Landover, its members are prepared to strike at the 90 Safeway and 113 Giant stores in Maryland and Washington if the deal is not ratified. The union members are operating under the expired contract, and a two- thirds majority vote is required to strike.

The UFCW could not be reached for comment Monday.

A strike was avoided four years ago during the last round of negotiations when Giant and Safeway agreed to maintain their health insurance package for employees. However, the agreement called for those hired after 2004 to get reduced health benefits and a slower pace of salary raises for the first six years on the job.

Stop & Shop, a Quincy, Mass.-based sister chain of Giant, reached a contract agreement with its union members this month after a strike was authorized but never acted upon before the union and the chain agreed on a health care benefits package.

The Washington and Maryland meetings and contract approval vote for Safeway employees will begin Tuesday morning, to be followed by the Giant employee meeting by mid-morning. Giant stores in D.C. and Maryland will be closed from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. to allow union members to attend the meetings.

Safeway stores will remain open.

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