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.