They Ignored It for 5 Years. We Forced Them to Act.

Sobeys is now legally required to act on worker safety after failing to deliver on its own promises.

The Safeway Bargaining Team standing together with President Thomas Hesse and Secretary-Treasurer Richelle Stewart.

Five years ago, Sobeys agreed to fix customer abuse, harassment, and unsafe working conditions caused by aggressive or inappropriate customer behaviour in stores. But they didn’t, ANNA.

Not after members spoke up. Not after repeated reminders. Not even after the issue got worse.

This week, during a new round of bargaining, they finally had to sit across from us and answer for their inaction. Because your union took it to arbitration and won.

A Promise Ignored And the Reality Workers Face

In 2020, Sobeys agreed to create a zero-tolerance program for customer rudeness, impropriety, and abuse in stores.

That wasn’t a suggestion. It was negotiated into your Collective Agreement.

And then… nothing.

For five years, Sobeys failed to follow through. No real program. No meaningful protections, just workers left to deal with it on their own.

And this isn’t minor. It’s not rare. It’s happening every day.

Workers have reported verbal abuse, intimidation, racism, sexual harassment, and being left alone to handle aggressive customers. Instead of fixing it, the company allowed this environment to continue and worsen.

At the bargaining table, President Thomas Hesse described it bluntly: workers are being pulled into “a perverted octagon of the environment the company has created”where Sobeys sets the conditions, but workers are left to absorb the consequences.

At the same time, as Secretary-Treasurer Richelle Stewart pointed out, the language in the Collective Agreement already sets out a clear expectation for a “culture of niceness.” But that only matters if the company actually enforces it.

So we stopped asking, and we forced the issue.
 

Now They Don’t Have a Choice

The arbitration decision is clear: Sobeys must act.

This week was the first time they were forced to sit down and start dealing with it in a real way.

Your union brought in safety expert Sean Tucker to lay out exactly what should have been done years ago:

• Real de-escalation protocols
• Clear definitions of unacceptable behaviour
• Proper training for staff and management
• Systems to report incidents and ensure follow-up
• Support for workers who experience abuse
• Accountability at the store level
• Preventative tools like signage and security

This is an example of the signage Local 401 is proposing for stores.

Read the full report by clicking here.

Sobeys has until June 23 to deliver. This time, they don’t get to ignore it.
 

Bargaining Reality: What’s Moving Forward and What’s Not

While this arbitration win is about safety, it sits in a broader round of bargaining where the contrast at the table is becoming clearer.

Your union is pushing for:

• better wages
• stronger protections
• pay equity across agreements
• improved leave provisions
• fairer rules around overtime and scheduling 
• recognition of members’ real-life needs, including cultural and family travel obligations, training, and workload fairness across departments.

At the same time, the company is continuing to push proposals that would:

• Increase cross-functional work across departments
• Limit or remove pay premiums tied to working outside classifications
• Allow pharmacy workers to opt out of the union and keep future pharmacy employees non-unionized
• Further remove positions from the bargaining unit
• Avoid any commitment to improving full-time staffing levels

The direction is clear: your union is pushing forward on protections and fairness, while the company continues to look for ways to reduce costs and weaken existing safeguards.

That gap defines this round of bargaining.

What’s Next

Next week, we’ll break down Sean Tucker’s report in a clear, easy-to-understand format  and launch a short survey so you can tell us directly whether these recommendations would make a difference in your store.

Because this only works if it reflects your reality.

Posted on: April 17,2026