June 18, 2007

Brothers and Sisters:

Your union continues to negotiate with management in order to reach an agreement that treats employees with respect:  a fair wage increase, a secure retirement and comprehensive affordable health care with reasonable waiting periods.

But management continues to play games.  We have been in negotiations for over six months, and are nearly four months past the expiration of your contract.

They’ve seen our agreements with Stater Bros and Gelsons.  We’ve given them fair proposals to improve health care and wages, but they still drag their feet and make excuses.

What is really happening?

Health Care

We gave management a health care proposal that would shorten eligibility to six months for new hires, guarantee coverage for children within six months and cover 100% of basic preventative care such as physicals, mammograms and child immunizations for all employees.

This plan would cost management exactly one cent more than they are already contributing.

But management refuses to accept this plan and wants to contribute much LESS to your health care benefits than they do now.  

And, they want to make up for their reduced funding by using huge levels of your health care trust fund reserves that could bankrupt the entire fund by the end of the contract, forcing drastic cuts to your benefits and increased out of pocket costs to you.

Your union’s health care proposal will save the management hundreds of millions of dollars, but they still want more.

We want to negotiate a fair contract, but we will not accept a proposal that would put your health care benefits in any jeopardy. 

Wages

We gave management a wage proposal that would eliminate the two tier wage and give fair wage increases to all employees.

What did management propose?  A new THREE tier plan, that would pay employees differently depending on whether they were hired before the last contract, after the last contract or after this next contract, and the pay level of each tier is lower than the previous one. 

This is unacceptable.

Management still has not given us a proposal for wage increases.

What does all this mean?

It means management continues to stall and mislead you.  Why?  Because every day they don’t give you a fair wage increase or health care benefits they make millions of dollars.  They would rather string you along than give you a fair contract.

That is why your union gave management until June 21^st to agree to a deal.  We’ve already agreed to a fair and equitable contract with Stater Bros and Gelsons Markets that gives fair wage increases and health care funding. Why can’t these giant national corporations do the same?