Approximately 21,000 Puget Sound area grocery store workers were prepared to walk off the job and into a strike at 7PM tonight, Monday, October 21, 2013, but the union just announced a tentative agreement was reached at the “11th hour.”
The union gave its required 72-hour strike notice at 7PM, Friday, October 18th. Negotiations continued all weekend, up until two hours before Monday’s deadline when a deal was finally reached.
Unresolved issues negotiated all weekend and Monday included wages, health benefits and a decrease in holiday pay.
Grocery store workers must still vote on the deal, but according to the unions, “We are very pleased to announce that today at 5 PM the union member bargaining team from UFCW 21 & 367 and Teamsters 38 reached a tentative agreement with the national grocery chains in contract negotiations. This tentative agreement has been unanimously recommended by the union member bargaining team.”
The union texted, “You may now resume your normal shopping schedule” when it announced the tentative agreement had been reached.
North Bend’s only two grocery stores, QFC and Safeway, would have been impacted by the strike.
