Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511200062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Union workers at Kroger Co.'s distribution center in Roanoke County approved a new contract by a 3-1 margin Sunday, averting a strike against the grocery company at the beginning of the holiday season.
An improvement in retroactive pay provisions in the contract played a significant role in its approval, said Jim Sherwood, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 171, which represents the warehousemen, mechanics and drivers at the center.
Workers had turned down two proposed contracts, the last one on Nov. 4. That contract offered a lump-sum payment rather than pure back pay, Sherwood said.
The new contract provides for an average hourly wage increase of about $1.80 over its five-year life, Sherwood said. Workers at the center were making about $11 an hour under the old contract, which expired in February 1994.
Under the new pact, workers will get a retroactive raise of 25 cents per hour from February 1994 to February 1995; from February 1995 to the present, another 25 cents per hour. The contract calls for hourly raises during the remainder of the pact of 45 cents on Feb. 28, 1996; 25 cents in February 1997; and 30 cents in February 1998.
Truck drivers, who are paid by the mile, will get a 3-cent-per-mile increase over the life of the contract. And drivers and warehouse workers will become eligible for a 30-cent-per-hour safety bonus that will be paid quarterly.
Only wages are covered by the local contract. Benefits for workers at the distribution center, which is off U.S. 11/460 west of Salem, and at 14 other Kroger distribution centers are provided by a master contract the company signed with the Teamsters in November 1994. Workers' contributions to their health coverage will increase slightly under that pact on Jan.1.
Carlton Hodges, the local's recording secretary and a shop steward at the center, said some workers had pressed the union leadership not to bring Kroger's latest offer to a vote. But, he said, all workers at the center were entitled to have a say in whether to accept the offer.
Sherwood said he thinks the company agreed to sweeten its offer because it was concerned about the prospects of a strike just as the company is entering its busiest time of the year. The center supplies 60 Kroger supermarkets - all the company's stores in Virginia and North Carolina and half a dozen around Kingsport, Tenn.
Kroger was pleased it could offer the workers a contract they could accept, Kroger spokesman Archie Fralin said. "The contract is the culmination of a lot of hard negotiating by both sides," he said.
"All along, we've been trying to reach an agreement without a work stoppage," Fralin said. "Certainly, we did not want a work stoppage."
by CNB