Safeway

At a Safeway supermarket that opens today near Arundel Mills mall in Hanover, the strawberries take center stage. As part of a design concept the grocer is unveiling, the lights are low in the produce section and spotlights are aimed at the displays of fruit. "The produce is the star, so it is being highlighted," said Greg TenEyck, director of public affairs for Safeway's eastern division, based in Lanham. Last week, Safeway Inc. and Giant Food Inc. settled with their unionized workers on a new contract to avoid a strike like the long one that disrupted the grocery industry in Southern California recently.

As Giant and Safeway grocery workers in the region cast their ballots and overwhelmingly approved a new union contract this week, they may have been voting on more than just their own future: The settlement that played out here, coupled with the aftermath of a harrowing supermarket strike in California, may have reverberating effects for workers around the country. The five-month strike and lockout in Southern California wore on both sides in the Baltimore-Washington area as they worked to reach an accord.

With overwhelming approval of a new contract yesterday, union employees of Safeway and Giant supermarkets in the Baltimore-Washington area and their employers averted any replay of the bruising grocery strike that recently concluded in California. Union officials said the contract between the two supermarket chains, which have a total of about 340 grocery stores in the Baltimore-Washington area, and 29,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers largely preserved the health care benefits of existing employees.

About 29,000 Giant and Safeway supermarket workers in the Baltimore-Washington area are expected to vote today to accept a proposed contract that grocery and union officials have spent weeks negotiating. About 340 grocery stores throughout Maryland and the D.C. area will be closed from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. today so cashiers, meat cutters and other workers - members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union - can vote on the proposed agreement. Union and company officials were saying virtually nothing about the offer on the table or the likelihood of a strike.

Giant and Safeway supermarkets in the Baltimore-Washington area and the union representing 29,000 of their workers are fast approaching a Tuesday deadline for a new contract - and the threat of a strike that could cripple hundreds of local supermarkets and send tens of thousands of workers to the picket line. Safeway Inc. and Giant Food Inc. are negotiating jointly with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents cashiers, meat cutters and other workers.

BAL HARBOUR, Fla. - After settling a 138-day contract dispute in Southern California, the newly named president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union says he's not looking for more fights with grocers. But union chief Joseph T. Hansen says the test will come soon enough, in Washington and Baltimore, where a contract covering 29,000 workers ends late this month; and in Chicago, where the UFCW has renewed talks with the Dominick's chain. "If Safeway comes to the table, talking like they did in California we'll have another strike," Hansen said, referring to the Washington-Baltimore talks with Safeway, Giant and Super Fresh supermarket chains.

The president of the Metropolitan Baltimore Council of AFL-CIO Unions was arrested at a Safeway supermarket in North Baltimore yesterday during a protest arranged to demonstrate solidarity between local unions and supermarket workers in California who have been locked out or on strike since October. Ernest R. Grecco was arrested as representatives of about 20 local unions picketed outside a Safeway store in the 4400 block of Harford Road. Grecco bought groceries in the store using pennies to pay. The penny purchase annoyed a shopper, and police removed Grecco from the store and handcuffed him. The Baltimore union members gathered at the supermarket to show support for about 70,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union who have been on strike or locked out since Oct. 11. Health care coverage is the main issue in the dispute between supermarket workers and Safeway, Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co., owner of Ralphs.

Striking California supermarket workers have brought their picket signs to Washington-area Safeway Inc. stores in an attempt to steer shoppers elsewhere and bring national attention to their six-week battle with employers over escalating health care costs and wage freezes. About 50 strikers from California were joined by about 150 from West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio to target 21 Safeway stores throughout Montgomery and Prince George's counties and Washington. The pickets could eventually reach Baltimore stores, union organizers said.

A tentative plan to locate a 55,000-square-foot supermarket in the heart of Old Town Mall has unraveled, city officials told community members last night. Arthur D. Gray, development officer for Baltimore Development Corp., told a gathering of about 40 homeowners, merchants and residents at Dunbar High School that Safeway Inc. had backed out of negations with Fairfax, Va.-based developer Peterson Cos. to anchor a revitalization of the long-troubled, dilapidated pedestrian mall, which lies about six blocks northeast of City Hall.

One of two men accused of stealing a car at knifepoint and driving off after a woman and her daughter had jumped out pleaded guilty yesterday to armed carjacking. Henry A. Maroquin's plea was part of a deal with Howard County prosecutors, who agreed to cap their request for prison time at 10 years at his sentencing Aug. 1. Maroquin, 19, of the 900 block of Park Ave. in Laurel, was arrested at gunpoint Jan. 20 after he and a second man fled from officers who had heard reports of a stolen 1998 maroon Mercedes and spotted the car at Route 32 and Shaker Drive.