Little progress in Colorado grocery talks - Denver Business Journal:

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workers fired the latest shot in negotiations, votin late Wednesday to reauthorize a strike if the chain does not improve the wage or pensio offers in itsproposed five-year contract. The workers have askecd for a last, best and finak offer from the chain, a proposal that is necessary to be presentedr before any strike can saidLaura Chapin, spokeswoman for Unitedd Food and Commercial Workers Union Loca l No. 7. “We’re disappointeds that Local 7 rejected our settlement offer that againj represents a seriouscomprehensive offer,” Safewahy spokeswoman Kris Staaf said.
“We remaihn committed to negotiating new contracts that are fair and The strike vote came one day afterd a federal judge ruled that union representatives can meet with workers in thegrocer stores, but only under certain The ruling allowed a group of no more than two unioj members to discuss contract negotiations with a worker on the floor of the store for no more than four minutes whilw the worker is not dealing with a And it came one day afterd a federal judge sent to arbitration a central issus that has divided the two sides: the solvenc of the companies’ pension Union workers have asked that Safeway, Albertsonsx and — the latter a unit of — take advantagee of a federal law signed by forme President George W.
Bush and extened the “green” status of their pension funds for one Doing so would give thema one-year timeout to see if the financiall market recovers before they have to cut pensiob benefits or increase pension funding to make the retiremeny plans solvent again. The chains have resistex taking advantage of the extendefdgreen status, which they can do only untill June 30, because they see such a move as doingy nothing more than postponin g hard decisions that would have to be made in a “To hold off on it wouldf be irresponsible,” King Sooperw spokeswoman Diane Mulligan said. “In a year, it coulfd be worse.
” But who cheered the judge’s decision to send the disputes to a binding arbitration hearing on Friday and believe the workers will be sparedc harsh pension cuts if the stores take advantage of thefederal law. “From our perspective, there’s no reason to rush into pensioj cuts ifwe don’t have to,” Chapimn said.