Colorado Safeway workers ratify new contract
Denver Business Journal - by Ed Sealover
Feb. 24, 2010

Safeway workers in Colorado have ratified a new labor contract with the grocery chain, bringing an end to nearly 11 months of negotiations.

Some 7,000 employees who are part of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7 approved the company’s last, best and final offer, Safeway officials announced Wednesday.

Workers had rejected an identical offer in November. But that offer was resubmitted to units that had voted it down on Feb. 4, and those units then approved it.

The vote was the end of a lengthy negotiation process that began in April between about 17,000 UFCW members and the three largest unionized grocery chains in the area: Safeway, King Soopers and Albertsons. King Soopers and Albertsons workers both approved contract offers in recent months.

Safeway workers voted twice during the process to authorize a strike if necessary. Safeway and King Soopers officials interviewed for a replacement work force and both said they had the temporary employees in place, but no work stoppage ever came from the standoff.

“We are delighted that all our of Colorado employees have ratified our last, best and final offer and are now under contract again until 2013,” said Kris Staaf, Safeway’s Denver-area director of public affairs, in a news release.

Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) is based in Pleasanton, Calif.