By Peninsula Daily News and news services
SEATTLE — Union leaders for about 21,000 workers at four major grocery store chains in the Puget Sound area said Monday they had reached a last-minute agreement in labor talks with four major chains, avoiding a strike.
The pact was announced only two hours before a 7 p.m. strike deadline.
A strike by the United Food and Commercial Workers would have affected QFC, Safeway, Albertsons and Fred Meyer stores in King, Snohomish, Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston and Mason counties.
No supermarkets in Clallam and Jefferson counties would have been affected by a strike.
Grocery chains on the North Olympic Peninsula are covered by a different set of contracts.
Union negotiators said they will unanimously recommend the new contract — but workers still must give their approval.
Meetings in which union members will vote on the contract have yet to be arranged.
No other details were given by union officials.
Allied Employers, which represented the companies throughout negotiations, said in a statement that the agreement “continues to preserve good wages, secure pensions and access to quality, affordable health care for our employees.”
Earlier Monday, union workers prepared for a strike by making hundreds of picket signs with the motto “Stand Together,” and stores posted help-wanted signs for temporary replacements.
It would have been the first Puget Sound area grocery strike since 1989, when about 8,000 workers for Albertson’s, Fred Meyer and Safeway, as well as smaller chains, walked off the job for 11 weeks.
News of the strike deadline, which broke Friday night, sent some shoppers stocking up on groceries to avoid crossing picket lines.
