Last updated on August 16th, 2012 at 12:07 pm
About 3,500 workers at Rite Aid in Northern and Central California—including 450 in the Sacramento region—have voted to ratify a new labor agreement according to the Sacramento Business Journal.
The contract includes across-the-board wage increases and a ratification bonus. It also maintains a comprehensive union pension plan and health care benefits. The union declined to provide details.
“Thanks to the unity of our members and the hard work of our negotiating team, we were successful in bargaining an agreement Rite Aid members can be proud of,” UFCW-8 president Jacques Loveall said in a news release.
Some of the underlying economic factors at the negotiating table with Rite Aid—rising health care costs, the sluggish economy and pressure of non-union stores like CVS and Walgreens—likely will be central to other food industry negotiations as well, Loveall told the Journal via email.
Early-stage negotiations with Safeway and Raley’s in Northern California have been constructive, Loveall added.
UFCW-8 and six other union locals are engaged in intensive negotiations with the Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons chains in Southern California.
