Teamster Locals 174 and 313 members will remain unionized Safeway.com employees despite company push to transition to gig work

A group of nearly 140 grocery delivery workers for Safeway.com overwhelmingly ratified a strong new agreement last weekend, locking in their status as unionized employees with strong wages, healthcare, and retirement. The new contract comes after the Company fought to get rid of all unionized workers and replace them with nonunion gig workers – an ‘offer’ which the Teamsters would not entertain. The workgroup held strong in their fight for a contract until the Company backed down, returning to the bargaining table to negotiate an agreement that protects Union work while rewarding Teamster members with strong language, wages, and benefits.

“We know that Safeway would like nothing more than to use only nonunion gig workers to deliver groceries for poverty wages, but we are proud to say we all stood together and fought them back,” said Teamsters Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks. “Because of the strength and solidarity of this work group, we were able to achieve an offer that our members were proud to ratify. This is a strong union contract, and strong union contracts are not for sale to the lowest bidder.”

In addition to a robust economic package, the new contract also includes language to protect union work from being subcontracted out to gig workers. In an industry dominated by this type of work, the subcontracting protections were essential and were the last pieces of the agreement to be negotiated in order to reach a fully-recommended contract proposal. The vote was nearly 90% in favor, ratifying the agreement that will cover workers from two Local Unions covering the entire Puget Sound area.