PORT ANGELES — The union representing workers at the Saar’s grocery store has called foul over the company’s handling of its pending closure.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21 in Seattle filed a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board and several grievances with the company last month, said union spokesman Tom Geiger.
The union alleges that the company didn’t negotiate fairly during contract negotiations shortly before the closure of the store at 2343 E. U.S. Highway 101 east of Port Angeles was announced in early April, is laying off employees without basing the action on seniority and didn’t give proper notice of the closure, he said.
“We’re just trying to get a wrong righted,” Geiger said.
A labor relations coordinator for Saar’s Market Place Foods said the company negotiated fairly with the union.
Ongoing discussions
“We had ongoing discussions,” said H.L. Ravenscraft, who declined to comment further on that complaint since it remains unresolved.
Ravenscraft said the company gave proper notice of the closure.
The contract required 30 days’ notice, and that was given April 1, he said.
Geiger said the union filed a grievance because it was told the store would close April 30 and that it received the notice April 5.
Ravenscraft said April 30 was an estimated closure date.
The store is remaining open until its shelves are bare.
“It’s very difficult to say with any sort of specificity when a store is going to close,” Ravenscraft said Friday.
“And as a matter of fact, the store today is still open.”
Inventory in the 40,000-square-foot store is being sold before the doors close for good.
The union claims the company only made one offer regarding employee pay and ended negotiations after that wasn’t accepted.
Geiger said that by federal labor law, the first offer can’t also be the last.
‘Have to negotiate’
“You have to negotiate,” he said. “You can’t come to a negotiation and say, ‘This is the last offer.’”
Saar’s offered a $4-an-hour pay cut for the 25 employees, and the union countered with a $1-an-hour pay cut, Geiger said.
A new employee would start with pay 10 cents above the minimum wage and get a raise of about 30 cents an hour after working 1,000 hours, he said.
The complaint over contract negotiations will be handled with the labor board.
Arbitration to be used
In rare cases, the board has required a store to reopen, Geiger said.
But he said that’s not something the union is expecting.
The other grievances will be handled through arbitration.
Corporate general manager John Hames said in April that Saar’s Inc.’s nine other stores in Washington state are in no danger of closing.
The Port Angeles store was discount-oriented Stockmarket Foods before it was purchased by Saar’s Inc. 14 years ago, Hames said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
