LITTLE FALLS, N.J. -- United Food and Commercial Workers Local 464A here said a new contract that has been tentatively approved by both the union and A&P, Montvale, N.J., increases pay rates and creates two new job classifications.
Ballots were mailed last week to the 8,500 UFCW members employed at 100 A&P stores in New Jersey and metropolitan New York covered by the previous contract, which expired July 17. John Niccollai, president of the local, said the union was recommending that members vote to accept the offer. The results of the voting are expected to be disclosed this Thursday.
Niccollai said the new contract would boost wages over the course of the 51-month agreement to $909 a week for top-level clerks, compared with $806 paid under the old contract, and to $1,048 a week for journeyman meat cutters, compared with $940 under the expired agreement. It also would boost employer contribution to health care to $620 per employee per year over the term of the contract, vs. $495 under the old contract.
Niccollai told SN the contract also creates two new job classifications: a clerk apprentice, covering employees aged 15 to 18 who are prohibited from using heavy machinery; and a career part-timer, covering longtime employees who provide in-store continuity, but who work part time only.
Under the proposal, clerk apprentices would start at a wage rate of about $6 an hour, but would move up automatically to the hourly rate of approximately $7 paid to other entry-level part-time clerks once they turn 18. They would also receive reduced benefits pertaining only to the clerk apprentice classification until they turn 18, Niccollai added.
Career part-timers -- those who have been on the job for 10 years or more -- will be given a minimum guarantee of 34 hours per week, rather than the standard 29 hours for other part-timers, plus a 25-cent hourly wage bonus on top of the contract wage increase, amounting to $400 to $500 a year, he said.
The contract's health care provision will continue to allow union members to go to their own doctors and dentists, or use a union-run medical center for services, Niccollai stated.
