Nearly 5,000 employees at 28 Fred Meyer stores in and around Portland went on strike early Wednesday morning. The employees, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555, plan to continue the strike for almost a week. Unless a deal is reached with Fred Meyer management, the grocery store workers won't return to work until 8 am Tuesday, September 3.
UFCW says employees are striking over Fred Meyer's violation of labor laws amid contract negotiations between grocery store management and the union. The union has filed several Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against Fred Meyer, claiming the company is "refusing to provide essential information for current negotiations" and advertised benefits to employees the company hasn't actually proposed at the bargaining table.
"This dishonesty undermines the bargaining process and shows a blatant disregard for workers' rights," Miles Eshaia, UFCW Local 555's communications coordinator, said in a press release.
The labor union also alleges Fred Meyer hasn’t paid required pension contributions to its employees.
Local 555 filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month alleging Fred Meyer has failed to process hundreds of grievances the union has made against the company. The union wants the court to order Fred Meyer to hold fact-finding meetings required as part of the grievance process.
Meanwhile, UFCW Local 555 has also rescinded support for a nearly $25 billion merger between Kroger, Fred Meyer's parent company, and the grocery store chain Albertsons. The two supermarket chains are the largest in the United States, and their merger has been blocked by a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which says the deal would be bad for consumers and workers. The trial to determine the future of the merger opened in the US District Court in Portland on Monday.
Local 555 was previously the only UFCW branch to back the Kroger-Albertsons merger, but the union took back its endorsement "as a result of new information as part of the bargaining process."
In a union press release earlier this month, UFCW Local 555 President Dan Clay said Kroger's "continued failure to not live up to their commitments in current contracts while being given every opportunity is disappointing."
Clay testified during an FTC hearing about the merger on Wednesday.
Amid the FTC hearing, Portland Fred Meyer employees clustered outside their stores with signs, trying to coax customers not to cross the picket lines.
At a Southeast Portland Fred Meyer store on Hawthorne Boulevard, Jaelyn Pope held a picket sign in one hand and her toddler's hand in the other.
Pope and her husband both work at Fred Meyer. Both showed up to picket alongside their coworkers Wednesday with their children in tow.
Her husband accompanied their young daughter on another side of the building.
"We're tying to explain to her what's going on and why," Pope said. "We just really want to get paid what we deserve."
While Kroger has promised additional support and benefits for employees should the merger go through, Local 555 is skeptical about the company's commitment to its workers.
"They have a proven track record of not living up to their obligations, and are falling short at the bargaining table," Eshaia said. "As a result, we are no longer in support of the Kroger-Albertsons merger for Oregon, Idaho and Washington.”
In a statement, Fred Meyer President Todd Kammeyer said while the company "respects our associates' right to collectively bargain," Portland-area grocery stores will remain open through the strike.
"Fred Meyer has consistently demonstrated its commitment to its associates, investing a significant portion of their earned sales into their well-being," Kammeyer said. "The company will continue to do so, while balancing their commitment to keep groceries affordable for their customers."
Kammayer also defended the merger with Albertsons, calling it a way to "secure the future of unionized grocery stores in America."
"If the merger is blocked the only winners will be non-union food retailers such as Walmart, Costco and Amazon," Kammayer said.
The union's contract negotiations with Fred Meyer are ongoing and will continue Thursday and Friday.
Fred Meyer workers aren't the only local grocery store employees set to strike this Labor Day weekend. Workers from 10 New Seasons locations in Portland and Beaverton plan to walk off the job on Sunday, September 1, in a one-day ULP strike. A press release from the New Seasons Labor Union (NSLU) says employees from 10 of the 11 unionized New Seasons locations in Portland voted to authorize a strike after failing to reach a contract agreement with the company after almost two years of bargaining.
"We've yet to achieve anything substantive for our contract because we've reached [an] impasse on a number of articles," Maggie Myers, NSLU Bargaining Secretary, said in the press release. "They refuse mediation and refuse to work in good faith with us on this contract.”
