San Luis Obispo -- 6-thousand Rite Aid workers across the southern half of California are voting on whether to authorize a strike. Their union UFCW 770 held meetings with workers here on the central coast this week to talk about the possibility of a strike.
The employees' contract expired July 15th and the union is now negotiating with the drug-store chain on an extension.
The UFCW says the company is asking for concessions that employees just can't afford. For some employees healthcare costs would go up as much as 10-thousand dollars a year.
Union representative Mike Shimpock says, " Rite Aid has a put an offer on the table that would completely devastate our members' healthcare and eliminate retiree healthcare as well as eliminating a lot of job protections that our members depend on like guaranteeing a minimum number of hours in a week and certain overtime they count on to make ends meet."
According to the union rite aids proposal asks for huge cuts in healthcare benefits while asking the employees to pay more.
Rite aid isn't talking about the details of its proposal, but released this statement today saying, "we're disappointed that the union has called for a strike authorization vote and think such a vote is premature, especially since the union hasn't even given us a counter proposal to our first proposal."
The strike vote results should be complete in the middle of next week and the results will be announced then. If the workers approve the strike that does not mean that it is inevitable, it just means the union has the authorization to call a strike if negotiations stall.
