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Fred Meyer Chain Reaches Tentative Deal With Warehouse Workers

Regional grocery and department store chain Fred Meyer has reached a tentative deal with its warehouse workers.

The deal averts for now a possible strike by 360 workers at a major Fred Meyer warehouse in Puyallup, Washington. The facility is a distribution center for the 132 Fred Meyer stores in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.

Neither the Portland-based chain nor the Teamsters union that represents the workers would release details of the agreement. But earlier the union had said the major sticking point was the cost of an employee health care plan.

Over the weekend the warehouse workers had voted to go on strike if talks broke down. Union members will vote on whether to ratify the deal later this month.

Fred Meyer is headquartered in Portland but is a subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Kroger.

On the web:

Fred Meyer press release:

http://www.thekrogerco.com/corpnews/corpnewsinfo_pressreleases_20111004.htm

Teamsters 117 press release:

http://teamsters117.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&HomeID=219931

Copyright 2011 Northwest News Network

Copyright 2011 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.