Grocery Stores Won't Strike

According to the Star Tribune, union members at several local grocery stores vote to approve a new contract over the weekend.

The vote averts the posibility of a strike, which could have happened if union members rejected the deal. Negotiators from the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 653 and several local grocery store chains had been trying to hammer out a deal for a month.

The deal represents a one-year extension of the current union contract, which was agreed upon three years ago. The Star Tribune quotes a former union president saying both sides agreed on an extension, rather than a new contract, to see how President Barack Obama's health care overhaul would impact supermarkets' health care costs.

The union represents workers at most Minneapolis-area grocery stores, including Kowalski's, Cub Foods, Rainbow, Lund's and Byerly's, and Supervalue supermarkets. Local Whole Foods and Trader Joe's stores are not unionized.

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