Safeway East Offering Union Buyouts

JON SPRINGER

LANDOVER, Md. — Safeway is meeting with union employees from its Eastern Division stores this week to discuss buyout offers for certain long-time employees, union sources said.

According to a letter posted on the website of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 here, Safeway is offering voluntary buyouts for “Tier 1” full- and part-time clerks, meat cutters, assistant managers and department managers at its Eastern division stores in the Washington and Philadelphia metro areas. This group includes workers hired prior to April 1983 (if represented by UFCW Local 27) or prior to October 1983 for Local 400.

The offer would provide a lump-sum payment, in addition to severance, of between $35,000 and $50,000 to eligible employees who choose to resign, Safeway said. Employees who accept the offer and are approved to participate could resign as soon as May 7.

Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., orchestrated a similar buyout in its California stores in 2005. A local spokesman was not immediately available.

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