Bosses Try To Pressure Grocery Workers To Vote No On Strike Authorization

Courtesy of UFCW 3000

After Kroger and Albertson flung crumbs at the Puget Sound Allied Grocery Store Worker Bargaining Team in their final bargaining session, grocery store workers at Safeway, Albertsons, QFC, and Fred Meyer are voting to authorize a strike action over the next few days. And let's just say, the bosses are crashing the fuck out. They're busting out the classic anti-union talking points and tactics, all to pressure workers to vote against withholding their labor, the most powerful weapon in the workers’ arsenal.

Grocery store bosses put their dirty tactics in writing. A worker sent The Burner a May 27 letter from QFC entitled “No One Wins In A Strike,” in which the bosses tried to shake workers' confidence in their collective power. 

“While the union sees a strike threat as leverage against the company, it’s you who feels the stress— facing uncertainty in your work life and paycheck,” the QFC bosses wrote. 

QFC encouraged workers to ask their stewards and representatives from their union, UFCW 3000, how much they will get paid, when they will get paid, and if that payment will be subject to taxation like their normal wages. To make the union look extra nefarious, the letter urges workers to get their answers in writing. 

If the usual anti-union talking points didn’t convince workers to reject the strike authorization, QFC bosses made their threats of retaliation very clear. They dangled scabs in the face of their workers: “You may notice us preparing contingency plans — like probably bringing in support from other QFC and company locations.This isn’t something we want to do, but we need to be ready to keep the business running if a strike happens.”

The QFC bosses closed with a question. 

“Ask yourself: Would a strike — and the possibility of missing paychecks— really lead to a better outcome?” the bosses wrote. “Or would you and your fellow associates be better off if the union kept working collaboratively with the company toward a balance agreement? The Choice Is Yours.”

In small font at the bottom, QFC bosses added a quick statement to cover their asses, claiming that after all their clumsy lobbying they are not recommending any “particular course of action.” Rather they feel the obligation to inform their workers. 

UFCW 3000 Secretary-Treasurer Joe Mizrahi called the letter “classic Kroger fear-mongering.”

“While workers never take a strike authorization vote lightly, we are not operating from a place of fear,” Mizrahi said in an email to The Burner. “We know we have the right to strike. We know our union has a $30+ million dollar strike fund. We know that our local alone has struck five times in the last 18 months and not a single worker has lost their job or has been disciplined for striking. We don’t want to strike, but if we have to, we know how to win."

Mizrahi continued, “Only one group of people stands to win if we accept a bad contract, and that’s a handful of rich Kroger execs in Cincinnati. If Kroger really wants to avoid a strike, then they would sit down and bargain in good faith over the wages, safe staffing levels, and healthcare that grocery workers deserve.”

But that’s not the only time QFC bosses made the pitch against the strike to their workers. A UFCW 3000 member shared a video the bosses emailed to staff in which QFC Division President Brent Stewart sweet-talks workers and explicitly recommends they vote against the strike authorization.

“You can impact strike authorization by attending one of the union meetings and voting against strike authorization,” Stewart said in the video, where it appears more likely he’s in front of a greenscreen than in an actual grocery store.

Stewart’s direct call to vote no on the strike vote seems to run afoul with the National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits employers from interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in their union activities, including strike authorization votes.

Legal or not, it's infuriating. UFCW 3000 member Vickie Logerstedt, who works at Redmond Ridge QFC, said that the video made her so mad. 

“What these guys do not comprehend in the remotest way is that even though I am a journeyman with a lot of seniority, I have two side gigs and I still won't be able to buy a house in this state,” Logerstedt said in a statement to The Burner. 

But Logerstedt said these kinds of scare tactics are nothing new. 

“We wish Kroger would spend more time at the bargaining table trying to meet our demands for higher wages and better staffing rather than trying to convince workers not to use their power, but something tells me that our wish won’t be granted any time soon,” Logerstedt said. “In the meantime, my co-workers and I will be voting no on their bad contract offer and a resounding yes to authorize a strike.”