INSALACO EMPLOYEES VOTE TO UNIONIZE

LISA A. TIBBITTS

PITTSTON, Pa. -- Employees of the 15 original Insalaco Markets here voted in favor of their first contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

The Insalaco stores operate under the Riverside Division of Penn Traffic Co., Syracuse, N.Y. Penn Traffic executives could not be reached for comment.

The four-year contract covers 1,400 full-time and part-time workers. It went into effect last month. Employees voted for the contract by a 4-to-1 margin, according to a statement from Local 72, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

The contract includes:

Health insurance for full-time and part-time employees and their families fully covered by the company. Full-time employees previously contributed $30 per week; part-timers were previously ineligible for health insurance. Along with medical insurance, benefits include vision, dental, life insurance and short-term disability, sickness and accident coverage.

Pensions for all employees fully covered by the company. The company previously contributed 25 cents for every $1 an employee paid into a 401K plan.

Improved promotion scales and guaranteed raises for all employees.

Premium pay for Sunday shifts for all employees.

The signing concludes some 20 years of efforts by Local 72 to unionize the chain, President Thomas Lazur told SN. As reported, unionizing efforts intensified after the Insalaco chain was acquired by Penn Traffic two years ago.

Local 72 also represents 9,000 employees throughout northeastern Pennsylvania, including some 2,500 employees of a number of Acme Markets units that Penn Traffic acquired late last year.

Penn Traffic has since changed the banners of some Acme stores to the Insalaco banner, but only the 15 stores originally belonging to the Insalaco chain were covered under this contract, Lazur explained.