Preparations continue for new Safeway union negotiations!

Preparations are continuing to launch Safeway negotiations.

The bargaining will impact almost 7,000 employees at dozens of Safeway stores all across the province.

While Safeway attempted to bully and leverage its employees before Christmas, this new round of negotiations will be different.

Next week, Local 401 will be holding special meetings with Safeway Shop Stewards and other union leaders to finalize plans for a newly energized bargaining effort with new tools, new strength, and new unity.

What polling reveals 

Safeway employees have found a revitalized realization that unity is the key to success in bargaining. In fact, every single Safeway employee agrees on one thing: there is an affordability crisis, and employees need to make more money.

Polling reveals that over 90% of Safeway employees are committed to retroactively restoring the 10% wage increase that their union won for them and that the Company stole away.

Over 90% of employees are also committed to bringing fair wage increases and a compression of the wage scale for Safeway employees who are among the ranks of those who are working through lower-end wage scales.

Further, over 90% of employees now say they are furious with Safeway and do not trust them. And 95% of members are prepared to take a strike vote if necessary.

As a result, senior employees, in particular, want to negotiate a meaningful, non-discretionary severance/buyout/retirement package. It is important that any retirement package be given out automatically if employees ask for them.

The Company’s last offer talked about discretionary packages, which would have left them with the opportunity to give out no retirement monies at all or only to people they liked and chose at their whim.

Many other proposals are being advanced by our members and others are polling very high, reflecting the serious wants and needs of Safeway workers.

Please click here to give us any of your final thoughts on your wants and needs as we assemble and work to finalize our ingoing bargaining position.

Bargaining strong

Under Alberta law, there is a “window” to kick off the bargaining process. Starting on April 11, 2025, and ending on June 10, 2025, there is a time frame to give notice to commence negotiations under the Alberta Labour Relations Code. Your union can give notice, or the Company can give notice.

Some employees have asked to start fast and to go hard. However, a majority prefer a more measured, tempered approach. We are going to communicate with Sobeys. We are committed to bargaining in good faith and being reasonable.

While it gets the process going, a notice to commence bargaining doesn’t really speed up or slow down the bargaining process. Simply put, bargaining will be simpler and move more quickly if the Company acts reasonably. We want Safeway to prosper as a business. But we must insist that the prosperity is shared with Safeway workers.

We hope very much to set aside all hostilities and to ask Sobeys to tone down their threats and anti-union rhetoric.

Local 401 is wide open at some point to utilizing a mediator to try to facilitate a fair deal. Having said all of this, we will not go into bargaining on our knees.

90% of Safeway employees have told us to launch a new advertising campaign, and an overwhelming number of employees have told us to take a strike vote if necessary.

A Common Front

We have had preliminary meetings with dozens of other unions, and we are now a signatory to something called the Common Front. 350,000 union members have essentially now pledged their support to the cause of Safeway employees.

If there was a strike or a lockout, their unions would ask them not to cross a picket line and to boycott Safeway, Sobeys, and FreshCo stores. If those workers further enlist the support of their friends and family, millions of Albertans will be supportive of your cause.

We are hopeful that this sends a message to Sobeys that they must approach the issues of Safeway employees fairly and that there could be serious consequences if they do not.

Setting things right at Safeway

Safeway employees have had a union for about 75 years. There have only been two strikes at Safeway. One was very brief in the 1970s. There was a longer strike in Alberta 28 years ago. Sobeys was broadly criticized by the business community when they took over Safeway. We firmly believe that their approach to bargaining this time has also been poorly handled and misinformed.  

If Sobeys management is reading this, we sincerely ask them to set aside the past few months and to approach their employees with a new and positive energy so that a fair deal can be struck without any further undue conflict and most certainly without a strike or a lockout.

Local 401, its staff, members, and leadership can work with anyone. But let’s be clear: we can also stand up to anyone.

Your Bargaining Committee

Below are the Safeway workers who will make up your Union Bargaining Committee:

• Fred Newbold: Store 8855, Meadowlark, Edmonton – Produce Clerk
• Linda Rivard: Store 8895, Garneau, Edmonton – Floral Manager 
• Dawn Ward: Store 8880, Terra Losa, Edmonton – Head Cashier 
• Teresa Kuefler: Store 8883, Camrose – Cashier 
• Mairi Kennedy: Store 8871, Grande Prairie – Cashier
• Maryrose Boyd: Store 8891, Westmount, Edmonton – Bakery Front End 
• Sinisa Meic: Store 8897, Spruce Grove – General Clerk Grocery 
• James Williamson: Store 8899, Wetaskiwin – Cashier
• Charmaine Sealy: Store 8921, Heritage, Edmonton – Cashier
• Carla Correia: Store 8879, Manning Crossing, Edmonton – Pharmacy Tech 
• Catherine Eden: Store 8895, University, Edmonton – Deli Clerk 
• Blaine Derochers: Store 8887, Hinton – Variety Clerk, Front End 
• Linda Travers: Store 8887, Hinton – Cashier 
• James Protsack: Store 8886, Callingwood, Edmonton, Produce Manager
• Candi Haugen: Store 8888, Grande Prairie – Meat Cutter 
• Nate Leblanc-Fortin: Store 8823, Beacon, Calgary – Grocery Clerk
• Adeel Kiani: Store 8831, Castleridge, Calgary – Front End Cashier 
• Moira Finnigan: Store 8833, Crowfoot, Calgary – Floral 
• Deb Cadmus: Store 8991, Chesternere – Cashier
• Tracy Matheson: Store 8854, Lethbridge – Grocery Clerk
• Gage Beck: Store 8854, Lethbridge – Meat Cutter 
• Justin Collyer: Store: 8919, Canmore – Grocery Clerk 
• Rose Anne Moreno: Store 8991, Chestermere – Pharmacy Assistant
• Kevin Ali: Store 8842, Glemore Landing, Calgary – Assistant Produce Manager
• Faith Bergman: Store 8903, Aspen, Calgary – Floral Dept
• Lori Jangula: Store 8915, Medicine Hat – Cashier 

* Note, the composition of the Committee may change as we get closer to bargaining.

Role of the Bargaining Committee

While accompanied by professional union negotiators and advised by lawyers and economists, the Bargaining Committee attends face-to-face bargaining meetings with the Company. They ensure that worker proposals are given meaning by explaining their direct connection to the workplace and the real lives of Safeway employees.

Committee members speak directly to the Company on your behalf. The presence of actual Safeway workers at the bargaining table ensures that the process belongs to union members. Who could know better what you need and want?

In the last round of negotiations, it was these employees who concluded that the Company offer was insufficient. They also concluded that the Company was not transparent at the bargaining table and that the Company walked away from the process while Local 401 requested ongoing bargaining dates. The Committee also concluded that the Company’s actions and communications through Safeway Talks were threatening and misleading. 

If you want to talk to a co-worker who actually witnessed what happened, we can arrange for you to talk to a member of the Bargaining Committee. It is important to know that our union is completely transparent and has a practice of open bargaining. If you would like to attend bargaining sessions, be part of the decision-making process, or even speak directly to Company officials about your bargaining issues, just let us know.

Before you form impressions about bargaining, relying on hearsay or what you read in Company communications, come see for yourself what happens at the bargaining table!

It’s important to know that the Bargaining Committee does not have the authority to make an agreement with the Company on their own. They might reach a tentative agreement or offer an opinion about whether a Company offer is good or bad. But no union contract can be concluded without a ratification vote where every affected member gets to express their opinion.

Our union belongs to its members. Union leaders and staff should and will do what union members tell them to do!

Posted on: April 09,2025