The union representing thousands of Giant and Safeway workers in the region has announced that it reached a tentative contract agreement with Giant late Tuesday night, after more than five months of negotiations. Marc Federici, president of UFCW Local 400, said Wednesday that union members will meet on March 5 to vote on the agreement.

However, the union says it remains far apart from Safeway in negotiations, and could vote on March 5 to authorize a strike if the two sides can not come to an agreement.

The union says Safeway is proposing a three-year freeze on wages for new hires in D.C. and Maryland at the minimum wage. The union also says Safeway’s proposal would increase health care premiums for workers. According to the union, the company has also proposed a limit on the number of hours part-time employees can work. The proposed cap—24 hours per week—would render those workers ineligible for certain benefits.

One of the largest sticking points in negotiations with Safeway so far has been the company’s significant pension liability. The multi-employer pension fund for Safeway and Giant workers is headed towards insolvency, and the union wants Safeway to guarantee employee pensions in the event that the fund can no longer cover them.

Natalie Bolling, a shop steward with UFCW Local 400, said she has worked at Safeway in Northwest D.C.’s Brightwood neighborhood for over 30 years.

“In another year, I’m eligible to retire,” said Bolling. “The fact that I might not have a pension? That’s very scary.”

When WAMU reached out to Safeway last week, the company did not go into detail about its proposals but wrote in a statement that it is “committed to remain at the bargaining table to work through our challenges.” The company told the New York Post last month that it was not required to increase its contribution to employee pensions in the event of insolvency.

Federici declined to share details of the agreement the union reached with Giant, saying the union wanted to wait until Giant workers had a chance to review it.

Giant wrote in a statement to WAMU last week that it had “offered to more than double our annual pension costs in order to secure our associates’ retirement—not just now but for decades to come, representing the single largest labor expense in our history.”

As for negotiations with Safeway, Federici said they were scheduled to resume next week and the union is “hoping for more opportunities” to meet with Safeway ahead of March 5.

On Wednesday, elected officials from D.C., Prince George’s County, and Montgomery County joined union members at a rally outside a Safeway in Southwest D.C.

“Look at this neighborhood,” said At-large D.C. Council member Elissa Silverman, gesturing to the abundance of new construction by the quickly-developing Southwest Waterfront. “But working people in our city and our region say, ‘I can’t afford to live here.’ There’s something nuts, and we’ve got to change that, and you’re doing that by standing up for fair pay and benefits.”

Most grocery stores in the Washington, D.C. region are non-union. Costco is partially unionized. Shoppers, whose workers are unionized, announced last year that it would close or sell 17 of its D.C.-area stores.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.