UFCW, REPRESENTING 130,000 WORKERS, FACE CRUCIAL CONTRACT TALKS THIS YEAR

A faceoff is brewing in the retail grocery industry as union contracts with two giant chains, mainly in the west, expire this year. Seventy thousand workers at the Kroger and Albertson stores, represented by four locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers, are in negotiations with the chains.

They are Locals 7, 770, 324, and 3000. Local 7 was set to strike but postponed it for 100 days while negotiations proceeded. Sixty thousand more employees in other stores represented by UFCW locals have contracts expiring this year.

Local 7 and 770 were among those who led the successful fight to block the proposed merger between Albertson and Kroger in 2023. Eventually the national UFCW, attorneys from eight states, and the Federal Trade Commission came out against the merger which would have been the largest supermarket merger in American history, worth $25 billion. It was finally judged to be a violation of the anti-trust laws and was blocked in court.

In These Times, Vol. 49, No. 4, 5/25