Safeway Members:
Why PriceSmart Matters

The PriceSmart contract was never intended for regular Save-On stores, however, Overwaitea continues to ignore this, and they want to convert even more existing Save-On stores to the PriceSmart contract. This not only threatens the job security and future of Overwaitea members, but also Safeway members.

Safeway members can expect that if the PriceSmart issue isn’t dealt with in bargaining, then Safeway will also demand a cheaper contract. A contract like PriceSmart, that pays their members $6/hr less at the top rate, decreased benefits, no Sundays off, no ATOs, no future opportunity, plus many, many more concessions to the existing Overwaitea/Save-On and Safeway contracts.

We already see Safeway cutting members’ hours in the stores, demanding members work harder, and management favouritism is running wild. Their goal is to cut labour costs, and that has negative effects on the members in the stores – just ask a member in a converted PriceSmart store.

We all have to stand together to stop the PriceSmart conversions. If we don’t, conditions for workers throughout the industry in BC will drastically worsen, and all union members will suffer.

When the employer converts a store to PriceSmart:

They reduce the wages and benefits for the union members working in that store almost overnight--with only limited protections in place for a minority of existing employees;
They lower the top wage rate by almost $6 per hour;
They eliminate many important scheduling rules;
They allow Vendor/Salespeople stocking, at the loss of hundreds of hours per store every week;
They introduce a three level wage grid.

This is how your employer sees YOUR future

If you believe you should have the right to earn a decent wage with benefits, you should be worried.

If you are planning to retire in the coming years and counting on a good pension plan, you should be worried.

If you like having Sundays off, you should be worried about what Overwaitea is doing.

If you like some fair rotation of evenings and weekends, or restricting Sunday work, you should be worried about what Overwaitea is doing.

Safeway Members: Why PriceSmart Matters

When the employer converts a store to PriceSmart:

This is how your employer sees YOUR future

Safeway Members:
Why PriceSmart Matters