by KYW's David Madden
Unionized workers at 40 Acme supermarkets in the five-county Philadelphia area will see their contract expire at 12:01am Friday morning.
But there won't be a strike or a lockout. What happens after that is very much up in the air.
Talks were continuing between Acme management and the Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), with federal mediators in the middle.
The main battles are over wages, health care, pensions, and calls for concessions in an increasingly competitive retail market.
The union has overwhelmingly rejected what the company calls its "last, best offer." Union leaders claim it would eliminate hundreds of full-time jobs and leave over a thousand members without health care coverage.
Acme spokesman Seth Horwitz would beg to differ:
"Acme put forth a final offer that’s fair and reasonable, that would provide our associates with the best overall wage and benefit package for retail grocery employees in this market."
And even as the company begins to implement some or all of its final offer, union president Wendell Young IV (right) says his 3,700 members are resolute on one thing:
"Our union -- my members -- never set out to have a job action. We will do everything to avoid a job action."
And on Wednesday afternoon the company announced there would be no worker lockout come Friday morning.
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