New talks delay Save-On strike

Jeff Nagel

Black Press

A strike planned to start Saturday night at Save-On-Foods stores is being put on hold.

Mediator Vince Ready has been sent back in to try to broker a deal between the Overwaitea Food Group and unionized workers at its 27 Lower Mainland stores.

The Labour Relations Board on Friday granted the company's request for a government-appointed mediator to intervene and try to avert a strike, slated to start at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Andy Neufeld, business agent for local 1518 of the United Food and Commercial Worker, isn't optimistic new talks now will yield any quick breakthrough.

"We'll attend in good faith and see what comes out of it," he said.

Strikes or lockouts aren't permitted while a mediator is in place.

The union issued 72-hour perishable food notice Wednesday after members voted 58 per cent to reject a tentative contract reached the week before.

It would have delivered a $1 an hour raise for the roughly two-thirds of Save-On-Foods workers earning between $8.75 and $12.15 an hour.

Longer-term workers, on a separate pay grid, would have received an extra $2.50 an hour over the five-year term of the contract, giving the highest paid workers $24.80.

The union wanted to end the two-tier pay system and block Overwaitea Food Group from converting more Save-On-Foods outlets to PriceSmart stores, where workers are paid less.

It achieved neither goal, but the rejected deal would have limited store conversions.

"The members looked at it and said it wasn't anywhere near good enough," Neufeld said. "The whole living wage issue is a huge factor in the Lower Mainland."

Junior workers were also angry that they were to be denied retroactive pay under the deal, he added.

Mediation has already been tried twice before in the dispute.

Ready first tried to find common ground in late May, followed by mediator Brian Foley in June.

A full-scale strike would be the first for Lower Mainland grocery stores since 1996, when Overwaitea, Save-On-Foods and Safeway stores were shut down for six weeks.

The 2003 contract dispute resulted in just a single day of rotating strikes at some stores.

Talks that had been underway have now been put on hold for workers at Canada Safeway, where the last contract also expired March 29.