FreshCo Palisades: Sobeys Frustrates FreshCo Bargaining
Your union’s negotiating committee met with the company for four days of negotiation from March 30 to April 2. The union negotiation committee members were:
- Aicha Cisse
- Gopika Cheeroth Sunilkumar
- Cat Eden – Union Labour Relations Officer
- Chris O’Halloran – Executive Director for UFCW Local 401
The company and the union met and exchanged their ingoing proposals on the morning of March 30, 2026. You can find copies of the proposals at the links below:
Unfortunately, that is about where the productive negotiation stopped. Sobeys has refused to respond in any meaningful way to your union’s proposals (or proposal packages). The union asked for Sobeys to provide a written response to address some of the confusion; they refused.
Here is one example of the games the company played during this period of bargaining.
On March 31, 2026 at 1:43 pm, your union gave Sobeys an amended proposal about the rights of a shop steward in the workplace. These are standard rights in most union contracts. This kind of language appears in agreements that Sobeys has with workers at Safeway, Sobey’s and IGA:
UP4 – ARTICLE 4 – UNION REPRESENTATION
Amend the current language to read as follows:
4.01
- A Shop Steward may meet with the Employer during work hours with no loss of pay to discuss matters pertaining to the Collective Agreement or Employee concerns.
- A request to meet with an employee confidentially, before or after a meeting in paragraph (b) above, during work hours with no loss of pay, will not be unreasonably denied.
On April 2, 2026, at 2:23 pm, after repeatedly asking for a response covering all the changes the union had requested, Sobeys simply said they had to get back to us.
“This was a ridiculous approach to negotiations,” said Chris O’Halloran, Executive Director for UFCW Local 401. “Three days of negotiations, and they would not give a response to a basic union proposal.”
The Union has given the company dates and is awaiting a response on when we can expect to return to the bargaining table.
If you have any questions, please contact Catherine Eden at [email protected] (or by phone at 587-598-0565), or Chris O’Halloran at [email protected] (or by phone at 587-999-6448). Stay tuned for further updates!
In Solidarity,
Your Union
UFCW Local 401
Posted on: April 29,2026