Tentative deal reached for central Indiana Kroger workers

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Kroger supermarket chain and a union representing about 4,000 central Indiana workers tentatively agreed Wednesday to end a contract dispute and avert a threatened strike over health care costs and other sticking points.

United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 700 said a membership vote on proposed 4 1/2-year contracts for different employee groups was scheduled for Friday, with voting results expected that night. Union leaders recommended approval.

The deal's announcement came after more than five months of near-silence on the status of talks affecting workers at 58 Kroger stores.

A strike threat gained urgency last fall after workers rejected by a more than 3-to-1 ratio a proposal that Cincinnati-based Kroger characterized as its best and final offer.

Kroger advertised to hire replacement workers, but a federal mediator in November persuaded the sides to keep talking and indefinitely extend an expired contract.

In a separate dispute, about 3,300 striking Kroger workers in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia ratified a new contract in December, ending a nearly two-month standoff over medical coverage.

Similar issues were at stake in central Indiana, where the sides had been unable to agree on splitting costs for future increases in health insurance. Other issues included pension coverage and pay for new hires.

The sides offered few details of Wednesday's agreement.

Lew Piercey, president UFCW Local 700, said, "Throughout this process, Local 700 members had three goals: protecting their health benefits, maintaining retirement dignity, and dramatically increasing wages for the 50 percent of members not at the top pay rate. This contract accomplishes those goals."

Lisa Holsclaw, a regional marketing vice president for Kroger, said the agreement offered "an exceptional wage and benefits package. Meanwhile, Kroger will be positioned to compete against tough lower-cost competition."

Officials at Kroger and other supermarket chains say they must hold the line on labor costs because of growing competition from Wal-Mart - whose workers are nonunion - and large retailers that have moved into the grocery business.

The agreement in central Indiana covers clerks and meat cutters at Kroger stores in the Indianapolis area and in cities including Bloomington, Brownsburg, Columbus, Crawfordsville, Franklin, Greenwood, Kokomo, Lebanon, Martinsville, Plainfield, Rushville and Shelbyville.

About 200 workers at Kroger stores in the eastern Indiana cities of Richmond and New Castle would merge their historically separate contracts with the central Indiana contract.

Kroger is one of the nation's largest retail grocery chains with more than 2,500 supermarkets and multi-department stores operating in 32 states under Kroger and other names.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)