Employees at Bay Area Nob Hill stores are set to strike this Saturday at midnight. (Google Street View)
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Locals 5 and 8 are meeting with a federal mediator today and Nob Hill, a Bay Area subsidiary of Raley’s, a private, family-owned company headquartered in West Sacramento.
According to a press release from UFCW Local 5 yesterday, the union and the company have been in contract negotiations for over a year, trying to come to terms on medical coverage, contractual rights and premium pay. The union says that the company recently provided a “best and final offer” which was worse than offers previously rejected, and that the company intended to implement the changes today.
In response, the union scheduled a walkout for midnight this Saturday at locations across the Bay area, including Alameda. Union members have been working under a contract extension that expires Saturday.
UFCW Local 5 represents 1400 clerks and butchers at Nob Hill stores throughout the San Francisco and Monterey Bay regions in cities including San Jose, Santa Rosa, Walnut Creek, Alameda and Salinas.
Mike Henneberry, communications director for UFCW Local 5, sits on Alameda’s Planning Board.
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I always shop at Nob Hill, but if they strike I will honor their picket line. Union workers are in a war with corporate powers that don’t want unions AT ALL (even if the corporate power is privately owned). Perhaps if Nob Hill were to be more competitive in their pricing they would have higher profits. Just a thought.
This is my favorite store – but it’s the workers who make it great. I won’t cross the line if they strike and hope other Alamedans will honor it. We need to support the workers.
They did, evidently, strike…