Month: February 2021

For almost a year now, our frontline teammates at Safeway have been true champions for your communities. Every day, you come to work with an inspiring passion to serve Alberta families – and our customers have told us loud and clear just how much they appreciate you.

Through this terrible pandemic, we worked through a long, drawn-out labour negotiation process in Alberta. We’re proud that we finally reached a fair and equitable deal for all this past summer. A deal that was overwhelming supported with a 90% ratification rate by our teammates. A deal that will ensure we continue investing meaningfully in Safeway and welcome FreshCo into the right markets for our customers. We’ve invested millions in the Safeway network and we will continue to progress to the promised $200 million dollar mark by 2025.

With all of this tremendous momentum, it is confusing to hear the recent criticisms from Tom Hesse and the Union Leadership who are campaigning against the deal that they negotiated last summer. This type of communication from the Union only leads to confusion and unnecessary anxiety amongst our hardworking teammates.

We can feel it, the spirit of Safeway is back in action. The Safeway brand is back to celebrating its legacy as Alberta’s hometown grocer, who truly supports local communities, suppliers, charitable causes and families. We are so happy to see the entire network thrive as one team.

We want to be very clear with our Safeway teammates. We are completely committed to supporting the Safeway network in Alberta so it can continue to thrive and reclaim its position as Alberta’s number one grocer. We are also completely committed to ensuring we have the right stores, in the right markets and in some cases, that will mean opening FreshCo stores. We have and will continue to treat all of our teammates fairly and respectfully through this process to secure a strong future for all of us.

There is no room for these useless politics in our stores. We need to stay focused on what is most important – our customers, teammates and our communities. This attempt at creating uncertainty and distraction is particularly disappointing.

It’s important to us that you have access to accurate information. If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with your HR Business Partner or Store Manager – they’re always there to help.

We are hopeful that UFCW 401 will join us, as they have in the past, to refocus on what counts: supporting our teammates and customers through this terrible pandemic, strengthening Safeway and bringing FreshCo to Alberta.

Since the very beginning of the pandemic, our Pharmacy teams have been proud to provide local families with pharmacy services that they can count on. Earlier this week, Alberta Health announced that community pharmacies will be the primary service providers for Alberta’s COVID-19 immunization efforts.  Twelve Safeway locations in Calgary and Edmonton were among the selected pharmacies by Alberta Health. The health of our community is important to us and we’re proud to continue our role of supporting the health and wellbeing of Albertans.

Vaccinations will be available for Albertans aged 75+ at the following Safeway locations:

Calgary:

• Safeway Pharmacy #8803 – Northgate
• Safeway Pharmacy #8816 – Market Mall
• Safeway Pharmacy #8842 – Glenmore Landing
• Safeway Pharmacy #8913 – North Hill
• Safeway Pharmacy #8916 – Montgomery

Edmonton:

• Safeway Pharmacy #8879 – Manning Crossing
• Safeway Pharmacy #8891 – Westmount
• Safeway Pharmacy #8892 – Northgate
• Safeway Pharmacy #8904 – Southgate
• Safeway Pharmacy #8906 – Jasper Gates
• Safeway Pharmacy #8928 – Abbotsfield
• Safeway Pharmacy #8906 – Windermere

We will continue to share additional information on vaccine roll-out plans with our pharmacy teams, store teammates and our patients in the coming days.

For the past year, our Safeway teammates in Alberta have been working hard to provide local families with an essential service that they can count on. We know this is no small feat, but we continue to rise to the challenge and serve our customers with determination and pride. As you know, despite these hurdles, we worked collaboratively with our teammates and UFCW 401 which resulted in a ratified agreement in 2020 – with 90% acceptance – that will help us solidify a strong future in the province.

Making sure that our teammates were positioned for success was important to us, and the agreement contained a number of significant benefits for teammates in converting stores, including:

• An enhanced severance offering (greater than in the previous agreement)
• The option to transfer to another Safeway store, should their location be planned for conversion
• The ability for the 25% most senior teammates in the store, who choose to go to a new FreshCo store, to retain their Safeway economic terms. Those who don’t fall within the 25% most senior will receive a buydown payment and a guaranteed job at FreshCo.

When bargaining with UFCW 401, it was so important to establish conditions that support the introduction of FreshCo stores on existing Safeway pads. We agreed on a process that allowed five months of bargaining and final offer selection arbitration. Not only did the Union ratify the final agreement, but they also received a voluntary recognition agreement for all FreshCo stores in Alberta that didn’t fall on Safeway pads.

We worked together to finalize the new FreshCo agreement as quickly as possible, spending two months bargaining and agreeing to an arbitration hearing for outstanding items. UFCW 401 agreed with the selection of Ms. Norrie as the arbitrator, knowing that she’s highly regarded for being fair and unbiased. The decision issued on February 1, 2021, that UFCW feels is unjust, was the outcome of this arbitration process.

Bargaining with UFCW 401 has been a long process, but from the very beginning, we’ve been open and honest that several Safeway stores are unprofitable. It’s clear that the only way to secure a strong future in Alberta is to introduce a discount option. FreshCo stores allow us to provide customers with the items they want, at the prices they’re looking for, at the same locations where our Safeway stores are currently struggling. Without converting these stores, we have no other option to secure our long-term presence in these markets. While COVID has created a temporary increase in sales, we can’t count on this lift lasting forever, and customers have told us that they prefer to shop at discount grocery stores in several markets.

As we look to the future, we’re confident that we have the hard-working teammates, and the necessary collective agreements, that will help us win together. Thank you for your unwavering dedication to Alberta families during these tough times. Every day, we’re so proud to be on your team.

Despite the challenges that our Safeway teammates faced in 2020, they never missed an opportunity to show up when their communities needed them most.

When we learned that the pandemic had only heightened the need for food donations in communities across Alberta, our teams across Alberta truly stepped up to the challenge and championed our holiday checkstand campaign like never before.

From December 3 to 26, 2020 , our Safeway teammates put in tremendous effort to support local food banks through at-the-register cash donations and the sale of pre-packaged food hampers containing the most needed items. A very special shout out goes to each and every cashier that committed to making the campaign a topic of importance with every customer that passed through your till, inviting them to purchase a hamper or make a donation. This campaign couldn’t be what it is without you!

Through determination, hard work, and an immeasurable commitment to their local communities, our Alberta Safeway teammates doubled their fundraising goal, raising more than $316,300 in food hamper sales and more than $667,400 in cash donations for a total of more than $983,800! Such an absolutely incredible achievement!

A huge thank you goes out to every single teammate for continuing to show up everyday and put your local communities first throughout these challenging times. It is amazing what a large team of good hearted and determined people can accomplish!