Month: July 2023

Why is bargaining taking so long?

Posted on by Daniela Travierso

We’ve been bargaining with UFCW 1518 and your bargaining committee since January of this year.

We are now in a critical phase of these talks that will hopefully lead us to a modernized and competitive collective agreement. We need a deal that works for our company, and for you — our teammates — and will allow Safeway to be successful.

We want to set the record straight on recent communications from UFCW 1518:

  • We value our teammates and have always treated them with the utmost respect.
  • We remain committed to reaching a fair and competitive collective agreement with UFCW 1518 and your bargaining committee. We’ve agreed to additional dates in September with UFCW 1518 where we hope to reach an agreement.

We also want to be clear that:

  • There’s been significant developments in the industry including a new settlement between UFCW 1518 and Save-On-Foods. This is a major development and our company must take the time required to fully analyze the costs and impact of this settlement and the potential impact on the Safeway network.
  • Safeway is not the same as Save-On-Foods. Save-On-Foods is a privately held company with no public visibility on their operations or financial performance. However, what we do know is that they have three times the number of stores and market share in B.C. compared to Safeway.
  • Save-On-Foods is not our only competitor. Walmart and Real Canadian Superstore are major competitors in the industry and they benefit from a much less expensive labour cost structure than Safeway does.
  • It’s no secret that British Columbia is facing a challenging and uncertain economic environment.
  • We have many terms in our collective agreement that don’t exist elsewhere which make it more expensive to run our stores and more difficult to compete in the industry. We need a competitive deal that will help Safeway compete into the future.

We look forward to working with UFCW 1518 and your bargaining committee on collaborative solutions for these challenges as we seek to achieve a fair, modern and competitive collective agreement.

We’ll continue to keep you up to date on progress.

Safeway is bringing the heat to celebrate summer

Posted on by Daniela Travierso

Eye-catching signage. Seasonal fresh produce. Freshly baked pies. Meat and seafood ready for the grill.

It’s undeniable that the sights and smells of summer touch every corner of our stores.

From colourful and unique in-store displays to cake creations that look too beautiful to eat, you’re doing an incredible job elevating our customers’ shopping experience.

A big shoutout to each of you for your dedication and creativity in inspiring customers to get out and enjoy the season to the fullest.

Happy summer y’all!

Kitsilano Safeway (Vancouver, B.C.)

Lawson Heights Safeway (Saskatoon, SK)

Lloydminster Safeway (AB)

McBride Safeway (New Westminster, B.C.)

Kensington Safeway (Calgary, AB)

English Bay Safeway (Vancouver, B.C.)

Final Offer Selection: Know the Facts

Posted on by Daniela Travierso

With the Final Offer Selection approaching next week, the parties agreed to share our final positions in advance of arbitration. We thought you would be eager to learn this news.

The Company’s offer is as follows: a $1,000 lump sum and a 1.5% wage increase in year one and a 2% wage increase in year two for top rated and overscale employees, as per the current collective agreement. We feel this offer is in line with the competitive environment of our industry and the current economic conditions that we’re facing. We’re battling hard to attract customers, not scare them away, who decide each week where to shop and spend their hard-earned money.

We also received the Union’s final position. Their offer calls for increases of 5% in each of the remaining years of the contract for top rated and overscale employees. This would put us in a difficult competitive disadvantage. The Union’s offer also represents a significant retreat from their previous positions advanced at bargaining which had called for the reinstatement of pandemic pay, increases to the employee discount, and raises for all employees.

While we’re not in agreement with the Union’s final position, we wish they had advanced similar proposals that were in line with the agreed terms and conditions of the Final Offer Selection process set out in the collective agreement earlier, so that we may have had more productive discussions at the bargaining table.

We will keep you informed about next steps following arbitration.

The way people shop continues to evolve. We must adapt to succeed.

Posted on by Daniela Travierso

We returned to bargaining in June with UFCW 1518 and the bargaining committee. We made some minor progress, but we’re concerned about the lack of understanding of the changes and pressures in our industry and how this impacts our collective agreements.

It’s clear that our customers and communities continue to change and so too are their shopping behaviours.

B.C. families are budget conscious and looking for the best value and it’s no surprise that discount competitors are attracting more customers. Customers are buying down and this has negative impacts on full-service grocery retailer sales, market share and basket size.

Since the end of the pandemic, we’ve also seen customer shopping patterns shifting from demanding one-stop shop locations to shopping at many locations and formats to get the lowest prices.

We’ve been impacted by these changes in shopping patterns.

We’re also facing added pressure from other grocery and wholesale club competitors all seeking customer loyalty in an effort to increase their sales. Customers have limited budgets and need to decide carefully where to spend their hard-earned money.

So how can Safeway compete?

  • We focus on serving our customers and running profitable stores. We need to drive sales and control our expenses to grow our business. The 7% increase in minimum wage in June was a significant cost to our business. And while we’re committed to rewarding you appropriately for your hard work, we must ensure it doesn’t jeopardize the profitability of our stores. Also, with any increases to wages we need to make sure we can compete within our industry and in this province.
  • We need to address areas of competitive disadvantage. Operational constraints like an absence of vendor stocking language, complicated scheduling practices, and an inability to effectively introduce third party kiosks, have made it difficult for us to compete with the rest of the industry which doesn’t have these restrictions.
  • We win together. We have to work together to beat the competition by providing exceptional value and service to our customers every time they come through our front door and spend a portion of their household budgets with us. In addition, the Company has prioritized creating a model for meaningful full-time jobs and a path for development for teammates who want to build their careers at Safeway.
  • We continue investing. We have, and will continue to, invest in updating some of our current stores by giving them a much-needed facelift to strengthen the Safeway brand and better serve our customers.

Since 2018, we’ve come a long way as a team and we need to keep focusing on managing our business both in terms of investments and controllable costs to ensure we can keep the Safeway banner viable and healthy in this province.

We remain committed to reaching an agreement with the Union and your bargaining committee. There’s a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we can get it done by working together.

Keep checking in with us for business updates on SafewayTalks.ca.