Projo Biz Blog

Contract talks are underway between Shaw's Supermarkets and the union representing workers at its stores in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, according to a union officlal.

Representatives of Local 791 of the United Food and Commercial Workers met today with company officials, according to the Local 791 Web site, as they continue contract talks in what the union describes as "the long process of bargaining."

Union spokesman Peter Derouen said this afternoon that it's too early to discuss specific proposals.

Local 791 represents more than 5,000 employees at Shaw's Supermarkets, who are working under the terms of a four-year contract ratified in August 2004. Under terms of the contract full-time workers saw pay raises of 62.5 cents an hour in each year, or $2.50 per hour over the life of the contract; part-time workers got hourly raises of 25 cents, 20 cents, 30 cents, and 35 cents -- $1.10 per hour over the life of the contract.

Another 350 union workers at a Shaw's distribution center in Wells, Maine, are governed by a separate contract.

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