Big grocers take aim at the United Food & Commercial Workers Union

[Hannah Bell]

Big grocers take aim at the UFCW
Darrin Hoop, a member of UFCW Local 21 in Seattle, asks whether his union is prepared to draw the line against concession demands from the big grocery chains.

August 31, 2010


THE UNITED Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) is in the midst of an 18-month period in which it is negotiating contracts for more than 400,000 of its 1.3 million members.

Will the union move forward or backward? So far, there are several grocery contracts that have been settled throughout the country...Unfortunately, both the UFCW local union and International Web sites--and, not surprisingly, the mainstream media--have very few details of these settlements. Due to the history of concessionary contracts negotiated by the UFCW, the silence is troubling.

But there's another major struggle taking place in the grocery industry that will help determine the union's direction: Some 25,000 grocery workers around Washington state have been locked in tense negotiations for over four months. On the bosses' side, three of the richest grocery corporations in the U.S.--Kroger, Albertson's (owned by Supervalu), and Safeway--have united for negotiations as Allied Employers, Inc. For the workers, 19,000 are represented by UFCW Local 21, while the other 6,000 are represented by UFCW Local 81 and Teamsters Local 38. The workers are spread out over 218 stores in nine counties throughout Western Washington.

Erin Collins, a 17-year Safeway worker, described important issues in an e-mail:

Some of the things that ARE NOT being said, but are big issues to Safeway employees (besides the pensions and benefits) are that Safeway wants to take away Sunday time and one-third . They want to take away holiday time and half . The "journeymen' clerks" (I'm lucky enough to be in that category) will receive $1 more an hour for holiday and, I think, Sunday pay. Everyone else, which is the majority of the workers, will get straight time. They want to take away our vacation time, too. So someone like me, who's accrued four weeks of vacation time, they only want to pay me for two weeks of vacation time. I've been with Safeway for 17 years!

http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/31/big-grocers-take-aim-at-ufcw

[Sherman A1]

1. Thanks for Posting

We here in StL are awaiting the outcome of contract talks and hopefully a proposal in the not too distant future.

Naturally the issues are Health & Pensions which had to await clarification from DC on the new HCR bill and on relief on pension fund.

So far things have been very, very quiet which is fine in my opinion. This worked out last time okay and while hoping for the best this time, I am not expecting much good to be in this proposal.

Part of the reason that things are quiet is to frankly keep everyone calm. I have been to many "a big angry meeting" which in one case took almost 24 hours (and apparently considerable alcohol for some of my brothers & sisters which made it more angry).

We will get our proposal, when it is completed, have a few days to quietly review it and then vote upon it. It will pass or fail upon it's merits.

I will note that hours have been cut at work over the last few weeks, which has not directly affected me due to seniority, but many of my co-workers have lost either "extra" shifts or in one case took a 25% cut in their hours. We have been cutting hours since I started in the business in 1973 and it's amazing to me sometimes that anything gets done.

[daleanime]

2. Damn it!

Where the Union love?

[HopeHoops]

3. AHOLD (A-Holes) didn't get its slimy mits in it? (You might know it as Giant or Stop & Shop).

They're even worse than Safeway at fucking up employees (keeping them 1/2 hour under the minimum per week to qualify for health benefits for example) and firing anyone who is "outed" as complaining (union activity potential, discussing management with coworkers, etc.) for trivial shit like not stacking the carrot bags correctly. One of the neighbor kids ("kid", geeze, she's about 22 now) worked there a few years back and she quit because they promised her full-time work at a higher rate and with insurance. On her first day, her manager informed her that a "company decision" meant she would be getting a quarter less per hour and would be starting at fewer hours per week but "only for a few weeks".

After six months of her manager promising the "almost full-time" hours would increase, she put her foot down and said she needed what she was promised because she was turning 18 and her parents' insurance wouldn't cover her anymore at that point. He told her he had a backlog of people to interview and wouldn't have trouble replacing her. She could keep the job as is or leave it. She gave him notice on the spot. She told me about the people getting let go for minor stuff much earlier than that and since they were friends, they had confided in her about what they had really been told when they were fired.

I shop at a family-owned grocery store (since the 50's) with 7 or so stores in the region. Curiously, all of the other big-name grocery stores put ads in the paper with prices you can only get with their data-gathering "bonus" cards. The prices at the family-owned store are much lower. The small store even has a better selection. I'd rather be able to choose from 20 different types of something that take up one spot on the shelf (going back) than one type of something that takes up six feet of shelf space and on two levels. That's not as big an exaggeration as it might seem to be.