Food Worker Union and Rite Aid Reach Tentative Agreement

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, located in Plymouth Meeting, and have reached a tentative agreement on new labor contracts covering about 2,600  workers in the company's stores in Greater Philadelphia, the Reading area and Northeast Pennsylvania, according to a release from the union.

Wendell W. Young, IV, President of Local 1776, said the proposed three contracts will be presented to the members of the union for a ratification vote in meetings next week.  The Union and its bargaining committee are recommending ratification.

He said the proposed contracts cover wages, health care benefits, other benefits and working conditions in 190 stores.  They would expire on September 14, 2014, and would replace contacts that expired in 2008.  

"The negotiations were challenging because they took place during a difficult economic period," Young said in a statement.  "But our bargaining committee and representatives of the company persevered.  We look forward to building on our relationship and creating a more secure future for our members – one in which they and the company succeed."

UFCW Local 1776 represents 24,000 members who work in southeast, northeast and central Pennsylvania, northeast Maryland and southern New York in supermarkets, drug stores, food processing plants, government services, manufacturing facilities, nursing homes, professional offices and Pennsylvania's Wine and Spirits Shops. According to its website, the union represents over 1.3 million members nationwide.