Unionized Safeway workers in Colorado reach tentative deal to end strike, union and company say

By Austen Erblat

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    Colorado (KCNC) — The union representing thousands of grocery store workers in Colorado and Wyoming says it’s reached a tentative deal with Safeway to end a strike impacting unionized workers at around 50 stores across Colorado.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 says after bargaining negotiations, union representatives achieved several demands, which include wage increases, bonuses based on seniority, fully-funded and improved healthcare benefits, an expanded vacation cash-out policy, and terminating temporary replacement workers.

The new agreement will need to be ratified in a future union meeting, according to UFCW Local 7, but the union celebrated the gains as a win.

“We have reached a fully recommended tentative agreement! The strike is over,” the union said in a statement on Saturday.

“We are pleased to have reached a fair and equitable agreement with the UFCW that will benefit our associates and allow us to continue to serve our customers in Colorado,” a Safeway spokesperson told CBS News Colorado.

The strike began almost a month ago in early June, following nine months of failed negotiations, a union representative said at the time. The strike had spread to 46 of Safeway’s 103 stores across the state — from Fort Collins down to Pueblo, and as far west as Grand Junction out east to Fort Morgan — and included a distribution center in Denver.

Those workers who went on strike must return by Monday, but can return sooner if they want or need to, the union said.

The tentative deal comes just two days after unionized King Soopers workers reached a similar deal with that grocery chain.

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