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Wednesday, July 03, 2002

By Allison Schlesinger, The Associated Press

The state's unionized liquor store clerks yesterday tentatively accepted a contract that includes retroactive raises, lump sum back pay and changes to benefits and job security language, union officials said.

The 2,536 clerks have worked without a pay raise since their last contract expired June 30, 1996. Currently, the top pay for clerks is $13 an hour.

Officials with United Food and Commercial Workers Union and Gov. Mark Schweiker's office announced the pact in a joint news release. The contract runs through June 30, 2003.

The union scheduled meetings for July 14 for the rank-and-file to review and vote on the contract, which will take effect Aug. 17 if ratified.

The agreement comes as liquor store workers stepped up negotiations with Schweiker's office in an effort to forge a new contract before a new governor takes office.

Union officials wouldn't comment specifically on wages or other aspects of the contract, but said workers will receive a lump sum to make up for raises they would have received during the six years without a contract.

"It includes retroactive pay for the last six or seven years -- lots of it," said Ron Kean, president of UFCW Local 23 in Canonsburg, which represents about 750 clerks in Western Pennsylvania.

The contract also changed the dental, vision and prescription benefits available, moving most workers from a private-sector plan into a state-run benefit trust, said Wendell W. Young IV, executive vice president of Local 1776 in Plymouth Meeting.

"I am very happy with the compromise that was reached," Young said.

A clause in the existing contract obligates anyone who would purchase a liquor store -- should they become privately owned as they are in all states but Pennsylvania and Utah -- to hire union workers.

Attorney General Mike Fisher, the Republican candidate for governor, has proposed funding special education by selling the liquor stores to private investors. The Democratic candidate, former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, has said he supports liquor-store privatization but does not intend to push for it because there is not enough support for it in the Legislature.

"Why turn the stores over to a private entrepreneur who might go out of business or doesn't have the state's best interest in mind?" Young said.