Markets, Union Will Keep Negotiating

Albertsons Inc., Safeway Inc. and the union representing workers at San Francisco Bay Area supermarkets agreed to keep negotiating past the expiration of their contract tonight.

The No. 2 and No. 3 U.S. grocery chains and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, representing about 30,000 workers in the region, will extend the current contract. Both sides have the option of halting the talks on five days’ notice.

At issue are the supermarkets’ increasing healthcare costs and their proposal for a two-tiered pay system that would give new employees lower wages. The failure of the two sides to resolve these issues in Southern California prompted the nation’s longest grocery strike, which ended in February.