ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Dierbergs employees voted Wednesday night to approve a new three-year union agreement with the grocery store chain.
Officials with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655 said the contract includes improved health care benefits and an identical wage scale to the contract Local 655 workers approved with Schnucks last month.
The new contract includes a $1-per-hour pay increase annually, effective last month through May 2024; increases pay for workers while training other employees by $1 per hour; and increases the hourly premium paid for overnight hours worked to 75 cents. The new agreement also allows employees who retire or resign to be paid for unused sick days and includes increases to workers' pension funds, along with other provisions such as gender expression protections for workers.
“This is arguably the best contract in our history,” UFCW Local 655 President David Cook said in a press release. “Many of these men and women worked through a pandemic and not only are they receiving substantial pay increases, but we’ve also been able to improve their healthcare benefits without raising costs to workers by a single penny.”
“We are pleased we could work together to finalize an agreement that demonstrates our investment in the long term career of our Associates,” Greg Dierberg, CEO of Dierbergs Markets, stated in the press release.
Local 655, which represents over 1,800 Dierbergs employees in the St. Louis region, said 64% of those voting at the Machinists Hall in Bridgeton on Wednesday night cast their ballot in favor of the deal.
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