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News Items About Local 7 and Issues Affecting Working Families...
Sample of news coverage in Wyoming on Safeway TA.
124th Year, No.31 Serving Sheridan County, Wyoming Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Sheridan Press
Wyoming Safeway workers reach agreement with chain
From staff reports
After months of negotiations,Wyoming Safeway workers,including those in Sheridan,reached a tentative agreementwith the grocery chain Tuesday in Cheyenne. The workers achieved one of theirtop goals — the same pension benefits as their Colorado counterparts.
“The pension deal is huge,”said Tommy O’Reilly, a negotiating team member, in a press release from union representative David Minshall.
O’Reilly is also on the executive board of United Food and Grocery Workers Local 7, which represents the Wyoming Safeway workers
“Now our pension is the same as Colorado’s, and that’s great,”he said. No additional details wereprovided on the pension benefits.
The workers also negotiated an improved health care plan that gives Wyoming Safeway workers a package similar to the one Colorado workers fought for in their new contracts earlier this year, the release states.
According to the release, those improvements include expanded wellness care that consists of 100percent payment for preventive care.
The insurance plan will also significantly lower thecost of co-pays for drugs to treat long-term diseases and allow families of newly hired workers to join the insurance plan sooner.
“You have no idea how big that preventative care is to Safeway workers,” O’Reilly said in the release.
In addition to the benefits negotiated, journeyman workers will receive hourly raises of 30 cents plus an additional 25 cents per hour over the next three years. Courtesy clerks will get a10-cent raise each year for three years, accordingto the release.
The workers also got a commitment from Safeway to start employees’ pay at least at the state minimum wage, the release says.
The worker-negotiating committee, made up of Safeway workers from around the state, unanimously recommended ratification of the agreement. The new 52-month contract affects more than 600 workers. A ratification vote for workers around thestate will be set soon.
The new contract covers Safeway workers at 10 stores in eight Wyoming communities, represented by United Food and CommercialWorkers Local 7 from Denver. Besides Sheridan, UFCW Local 7 represents workers at two stores in Cheyenne, two in Casper, and one store in Laramie, Douglas, Wheatland, Lander and Riverton.
Local 7 Backed Law Cuts Payday Loan Fees Which Charged Over 300% Interest
Payday-loan change OK'd
The Denver Post
By a one-vote margin, the House on Tuesday sent Gov. Bill Ritter legislation putting new limits on payday loans that supporters said would help break a cycle of debt by borrowers.
On a 33-32 vote, the House agreed to a Senate version that essentially does away with traditional, two-week payday loans as they exist in law now, replacing them with loans that can be paid back over as long as six months.
Under current law, payday lenders can charge fees that amount to a more then 300 percent interest rate measured as an annual percentage rate.
Under the Senate version, lenders still would be able to charge up to $675 in interest and fees on a $500 loan, if a borrower extended the loan another six months. Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, said the reworked version of the bill would give borrowers enough time to pay back the loan early instead of being caught in a cycle of loan rollovers every two weeks.
Critics of the bill, mostly Republicans but a few Democrats as well, said the legislation would cost Colorado jobs. Five Democrats voted against the bill. "The Senate has taken a bad bill and made it marginally better," said Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs. "This might only put a third of the industry out of business."
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