UFCW Hopes to Meet With Save Mart

SAN FRANCISCO — Negotiators for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union here hope to resume talks with Save Mart Supermarkets, in Modesto, Calif., by the end of the week, a union spokesman told SN.

William McDonough, national director of collective bargaining for the UFCW, was scheduled to fly to the Bay Area to talk with the three union locals involved in the negotiations before the union sets up a meeting with Save Mart, he explained. McDonough also traveled west earlier this year to get involved in the union's talks with Knob Hill, a division of Raley's Supermarkets, in Sacramento, Calif., but was unsuccessful in heading off a strike vote by the chain's employees.

"We see Save Mart as a different case because we believe they want to settle," the UFCW spokesman told SN.

Save Mart officials declined comment.

The new round of talks became necessary after one of the three locals rejected an offer that had been recommended to Save Mart employees by UFCW leaders, pushing the combined vote against the proposal to 60%. The UFCW is still negotiating with Safeway, while talks with Raley's have previously been suspended. The union's contracts with the three chains expired last October.

Read more: UFCW Hopes to Reopen Save Mart Talks