Negotiations for the two Jewel contracts expiring in March reconvened today in Park Ridge. The committee began the day’s over 13-hour session at 10:00 a.m. to spend time going through new proposals and information sent from the Company within the last few days.

Last night, the Company emailed an extension agreement out of context and without explanation. As such, negotiations began with Local 710 Trustee John T. Coli expressing the intense frustration of the entire Bargaining Committee with this kind behavior throughout negotiations.

The Union proceeded to go through proposals, and brought up the fact that given the employee listing as provided by the company, a minimum of 26 percent of the warehouse workforce is classified as a 20 percent employee. Additionally, looking at the provided numbers for the warehouse, the Company has utilized third party workers for 1.17 million hours worked over the past three-and-a-half years. This equates to approximately 160 full time jobs.

From the Union’s information request for healthcare data, it has been found that other bargaining units are paying lower copays and are offered different categories for healthcare than the Local 710 Jewel membership. The Union requested clarification on these differences.

Overall, Local 710 members are outraged at the pace of negotiations and disgusted by the behavior of the Company’s committee as a whole. The Union suggested that each side move forward to presenting a last, best and final offer, which the Company declined.

The union worked to make significant movement in order to continue to move towards an agreement, and the company responded with hardly anything.

Negotiations are scheduled to resume February 19. Questions and concerns may be directed to any member of the bargaining committee.

Teamsters Local 710 is an affiliate of Teamsters Joint Council 25, America’s premier labor union for Chicago, Illinois and northwest Indiana.

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