Following more than two days of negotiations in Portland, a union representing thousands of Fred Meyer workers reached a tentative agreement with employers.
The details of the agreement will not be released until ratification meetings are held, according to a statement from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555.
“At those meetings, you will learn all the details, ask any questions and vote to accept or reject the tentative agreement,” says a post on the union’s Facebook page.
The agreement will not become a contract unless a majority of union members vote yes to ratify it. The dates of those meetings haven’t been scheduled.
Negotiations ran into late Friday night and into Saturday, when the agreement was reached around 9 a.m.
Additionally, a boycott called for by the union of Fred Meyer stores in Southwest Washington and Oregon, which started Sept. 21 as contract negotiations became more tense, has been called off.
“Our boycott against Fred Meyer was highly effective, due to your hard work in building relationships with your communities, who stood strong and proud with us,” the union said.
Fifteen months of labor negotiations had not previously resulted in a new contract. The negotiations centered on wages and pay inequities, according to the union.
When the union called for the boycott about a week ago, it marked the first economic action it had taken. Fred Meyer employs roughly 18,000 people at more than 50 stores in the region, including seven in Clark County.
The union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board earlier this month alleging that Fred Meyer officials were pulling workers into one-on-one conversations to discuss the union without a union representative present.
Jeffery Temple, spokesman for Fred Meyer, said those claims were “simply untrue.” He said Fred Meyer’s focus was on reaching the common ground and landing on a contract during this week’s negotiations.
Fred Meyer also sought to hire replacement workers at $15 per hour.
Source: https://www.columbian.com
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