SAFEWAY, KING VOTE SEPARATE NEGOTIATIONS

DENVER -- United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7R here said its members have voted to negotiate with Safeway and King Soopers here separately rather than in a multiemployer bargaining unit, as it did three years ago.

or Safeway and King Soopers management, said the two chains will engage in coordinated bargaining with the union, as it did prior to 1996 -- negotiating together on common issues like wages, benefits and work rules, and meeting separately with each side to discuss issues of importance to that company.

Stan Kania, secretary-treasurer of Local 7R, told SN the union broke with local tradition three years ago when it negotiated as a multiemployer bargaining unit, "and we don't want to do that anymore."

The 1996 negotiations resulted in a strike-lockout that lasted seven weeks, with the union striking King Soopers and subsequently being locked out by Safeway. King Soopers is a division of Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. and Safeway here is a division of the Pleasanton, Calif.-based chain.

Local 7R's contracts covering approximately 12,000 retail clerks and meatcutters at 100 stores here expire July 10; contracts covering about 2,300 union members at 20 stores in Colorado Springs are also due to expire -- clerks on July 10, meatcutters on Aug. 21.

Local 7R negotiated an early contract settlement in February with Albertson's here, covering 2,500 clerks and meatcutters under a new five-year agreement.

According to Kania, negotiations with the King Soopers and Safeway have not yet begun. He said the union has let the employers know on several occasions it is interested in negotiating an early settlement, but the employers have not responded to the union's overtures.

Webb said King Soopers and Safeway have discussed whether or not they want to start negotiations early, "but they're still working out logistical details, and they haven't decided yet when to proceed."