New Rite Aid Contract to be Good Medicine for Workers

Union employees at one of California’s largest drugstore chains will vote on a proposed contract this week, a deal that their union said “will be, beyond any doubt, the best contract in the country” for drugstore workers.

Tentative contract agreements with the Rite Aid drug store chain for 8,000 employees, at bargaining units in both southern and northern sections of California were announced by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 8.

The two separate agreements include significant wage increases and protect health benefits for Rite Aid workers, which are set up through trust funds operated jointly by the union and Rite Aid management, the union said. The tentative contracts also preserve pension benefits and include workplace protections.

The agreements will be submitted to almost 8,000 California members of Rite Aid’s Union work force for ratification. Members in Southern California will vote in regional meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, workers in Northern California will vote by mail.

“Upon ratification, these agreements will be, beyond any doubt, the best contracts in the country with Rite Aid or any other employer in the retail drug industry,” UFCW Local 8 President Jacques Loveall said in a prepared statement.

-City News Service