Unionized Shoppers Workers Mobilize
Following successfully concluded talks with Giant-Landover and Safeway, members of United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 working at Shoppers Food & Pharmacy have formed an Activist Contract Team (ACT!) and launched a website in support of collective bargaining.
Local 400 members are backing Shoppers workers in their demands for a contract to replace the one set to expire on July 7. Landover, Md.-based Shoppers is a banner of Supervalu in Minneapolis
“We will not let Shoppers/Supervalu dump its financial problems on our members’ backs,” said Local 400 president Tom McNutt. “Workers are Shoppers’ greatest asset and the solution to the company’s problems, which lie exclusively in the executive suites. We are going to emphatically make the case that investing in Shoppers’ workers in the best and only way for the company to start growing and profiting again.”
One major issue likely to arise during negotiations is Supervalu’s operation of a non-union banner, Save-A-Lot, which has stores in many of the same markets and communities as Supervalu union banners. “Cannibalizing yourself has never ranked as a sound business strategy,” McNutt noted, “and Save-A-Lots are losing money. Rather than eat itself alive, Supervalu needs to invest in its union workers and banners so it can start eating the competition.”
http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/industry-intelligence/id35617/unionized-shoppers-workers-mobilize/
