GEDDES -- According to the sales agreement between Penn Traffic and Price Chopper, there is no obligation for Price Chopper to keep any of the employees from P&C stores. If they do choose to keep them, they aren't obligated to maintain their wages or benefits.
Questions are on dozens of P&C workers' minds as they filed into a meeting with officials Wednesday to discuss health and unemployment benefits if they are in a P&C store that closes and they end up unemployed. "I'm just not sure what the best outcome would be. Worst fear is, both my husband and I work for the company and right now, it's a matter of finding health benefits," says worker Sandra DeIulio
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local One organized the meeting at the State Fairgrounds. Price Chopper, which is stepping in with the goal of buying 22 of P&C's stores, isn't a unionized company. But workers say if the sale goes through, they just want to work, with or without a union. Worker Joe Leombrone, who has been with P&C for 35 years, says, "It would help the people unionized now continue their pensions, but if its not, the jobs are there. We'll certainly take those if they offer them to us."
Workers like Leombrone say any offer is better than nothing. "Good news for the economy here and for anyone who would wanna keep going with their job. We hope there's more players involved in this obviously," he says.
A hearing on the potential sales agreement is set for January 8th in bankruptcy court.
Employees say UFCW officials didn't discuss the union's future at the meeting. Calls to local UFCW representatives were not returned Wednesday. The Teamsters union also represents some Penn Traffic workers, an official there says he hopes the Price Chopper sale doesn't go through.
