HEALTH CARE, JOBS AT ISSUE AS UFCW PACTS EXPIRE

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

The relatively calm labor-management climate so far this year could be tested over the next couple of months as numerous contracts expire.

Several major pacts between the industry and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union are about to expire in the East, West and Midwest.

The hectic pace may test the state of relations as managements attempt to rein in costs and the unions seek some major goals. In particular, if either of two key union objectives -- maintenance of health care benefits and job preservation -- flares up as a controversial issue, it could be a contentious year after all. However, neither unions nor managements are predicting that will be the case at this point.

Upcoming UFCW contracts and their expiration dates include:

Kroger Co. in Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 16; Meijer Inc. in Michigan, Sept. 23; Jewel Food Stores in Chicago, Sept. 27; A&P's Waldbaum's chain in metropolitan New York, Sept. 30 and Oct. 14; Albertson's, Fred Meyer Inc. and Safeway in Yakima, Wash., Oct. 1.

In addition, contracts for Safeway and local independents North of Wenatchee, Wash., expired on Sept. 2; and contracts for retailers operating in Las Vegas expired yesterday. The Las Vegas contracts include employees at Albertson's, Lucky, Smith's Food & Drug Centers and Vons Cos.

The union's primary objective in all negotiations this year is maintenance of health care benefits, Greg Denier, director of public relations for UFCW International, told SN. "The largest issue dividing employers and workers in the supermarket industry today is health care benefits and the threat to those benefits that comes from the entry of nonunion employers like Wal-Mart and Kmart, who don't provide adequate health benefits," Denier told SN. Health care costs were a major point of contention in the only major negotiations this year that resulted in a strike. That conflict was the nine-day work stoppage in northern California that involved more than 32,000 employees at Albertson's, Lucky Stores and Safeway. The health maintenance issue in northern California was resolved with a flat-cost contract that maintained the same total payout in wages and benefits "[and] which preserved our members' health benefits without any net cost increase for the employers," Denier said. Managed health care is a major factor in the current Columbus Kroger negotiations, according to Becky Berroyer, president of Local 1059. Berroyer couldn't be reached for an interview, but in a prerecorded phone message for union members, she said: "The union position has not changed on health care. We will not accept any form of copayment or any effort by Kroger to decrease health care benefits."

Kroger officials declined to comment.

Negotiations are further along for the Meijer Michigan pact, which covers 27,000 employees at 57 stores throughout the state. An agreement on a new contract was being voted on last week, Robert Potter, president of UFCW Local 951, told SN. He said the focus in negotiations was on a new economic package, including wage and benefit increases. The proposed agreement calls for wage increases exceeding 15% and increased fringe benefits over a three-and-a-half-year period, he said. "Both parties decided early on to come up with a timely solution, and I have no sense that Meijer felt the package was too big or that it didn't meet their costs," Potter said. A Meijer spokesman confirmed the contract terms and told SN the increases were determined through compromise during negotiations. "We each put our ideas on the table, and we made two proposals into one," he said.

The Jewel Chicago negotiations, which began late last month, cover 200 stores and 20,000 members, according to a spokeswoman for UFCW Local 881. She said no formal proposals had been presented and it was "too early" to discuss the main issues in the negotiations. A Jewel executive could not be reached for comment.

The contract expirations for A&P relate to two groups of Waldbaum's employees. A pact expires on Sept 30 covering 7,700 retail clerks at 92 stores. On Oct. 14, a contract expires for meatcutters, covering 600 employees at 81 stores.

While health care is a key issue for the union this year, Denier said preservation of union jobs is also extremely important. Accordingly, the union is willing to show flexibility when it comes to helping a company achieve greater market share, he said.

"The union is sensitive to market share, and because wages and benefits tend to be tied to the level of market share, we always try to work with companies to maximize the number of union jobs so they can compete effectively," he said. Money appears to be less of an issue now than it was several years ago, observers said.

"In the late 1980s and early 1990s, health care costs were going up, and payouts to meet those increases were often achieved by employees at the expense of pay increases," said Jonathan Ziegler, a securities analyst with Salomon Bros., New York. "But with the slowdown in inflation in health costs, any increases the union gets from management can now go into the pay package rather than into health care."