Whether residents in the Blundell and Broadmoor neighbourhoods will continue to have a local supermarket option heading into the summer will depend on the outcomes of upcoming mediation between Sobeys, owner of Safeway, and its employees at the United Food and Commercial Workers 1518 union (UFCW).

Sobeys plans to close the Blundell Centre and Richlea Square Safeways, along with eight others in the Lower Mainland. It has however stated there is potential to re-open the Richmond locations as FreshCo stores.

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While the stores were initially planned to close in May, they will remain open until at least July 5.

To resolve the collective agreements at the stores the Minister of Labour has tapped star mediator Vince Ready, according to Sobeys spokesperson Jacqueline Corrado Weatherbee.

“Sobeys has been working with the Unions in B.C. to reach agreement on a reopener of the collective agreement. We have advised the Union that, if we can get a collective agreement in place, we will be launching our FreshCo stores in the BC Market,” said Weatherbee in a statement April 11.

Safeways in Western Canada have run into financial problems since Sobeys purchased the well-known brand name supermarket. UFCW has claimed the stores have been mismanaged and now the company is trying to lower wages for the workers who are not dismissed.

According to UFCW president Ivan Limpright, Sobeys wants to eliminate accumulated time off (ATO), decrease wages and require co-pay for benefits.

“Some Safeway locations have over 100 percent turnover – in large part because employees don’t make a living wage. These concessions won’t help Sobeys turn things around. They’ll only make the problem worse,” said Limpright, via an online statement March 19, where he also asked Minister of Labour Harry Bains to intervene with a special officer (Ready) to move bargaining along.

The union said it will not speak to media directly. But via its statement last month it indicated talks remain “far apart” and “Sobeys hasn’t moved on their initial concessionary demands.”

There are 60 Safeways in B.C. that employ 4,500 members.

Well over 100 employees in Richmond are affected. Some with seniority will need to be placed elsewhere while most stand to lose their jobs. Whether they are rehired is unknown and whether they maintain the same wages and benefits is also a question mark.

If FreshCo does open, the stores will close for the time required to renovate and rebrand.

FreshCo is branded as a discount supermarket.

Safeway keeps playing ball

After initially being informed by Sobeys in February that its annual $5,000 community grant from Safeway was being taken back, Richmond Youth Soccer Association informed the Richmond News of its dilemma to find new funding for equipment, such as jerseys.

Following inquiries from the News, Sobeys informed RYSA that the grant would be maintained in 2018. Sobeys told RYSA its community grants program had been centralized reently.

“We’ve committed to supporting them for the upcoming season and discussing transition planning, if appropriate, next year,” said Weatherbee.