Solidarity Key Ingredient For Bakers' New Contract

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Saying that “solidarity works!” Bakers Local 118 President Al Haight credits UFCW Local 400 and Teamsters 639 with providing the muscle to break through stalled contract negotiations with Giant and Safeway. The resulting contract proposal was approved by the Bakers yesterday. After eight months of negotiations bogged down over key issues in February, “we were just spinning our wheels and I really thought we were going to be forced to swallow a bad deal,” Haight tells Union City. “Even the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service was getting frustrated.” Haight then turned to his fellow unions at Giant and Safeway, and UFCW 400 President Jimmy Lowthers sent in Secretary/Treasurer Tom McNutt and Teamsters 639 President Tommy Ratliff sent Recording Secretary Phil Giles to a February 27 negotiating session and McNutt returned for what turned out to be the final session, a marathon 16-hour negotiation on March 4. The two locals represent over 20,000 thousand workers at the two grocery chains. “You couldn’t ask for more of a commitment than these locals showed,” Haight says, “they were just relentless. When locals 400 and 639 came to the table that changed everything.” In addition to warding off concessionary demands, the Bakers won a 4-year contract covering over 700 workers at Safeway and Giant that provides for annual raises totaling $1.50 an hour over the life of the contract, no new tier hire rates, and preserved Sunday premiums and holiday pay. “We also won a wellness plan that our members have wanted for decades, as well as full retroactivity to last August, our when original contract expired,” says Haight. “Solidarity does exist,” he adds, “and it’s more important now more than ever. This is our time to really focus on the future of organized labor; there’s not a better time in history, with Obama in office, supporting labor, and everyone working together for the Employee Free Choice Act.” - report/photo by Chris Garlock