About a dozen members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 leafleted the Sept. 20 grand opening of Save-A-Lot at 6828 SE Foster Road in Portland to let shoppers know the employer doesn’t have a union contract.

The discount grocer will open 25 to 30 stores in the Pacific Northwest over the next year. A store at 6100 SE King Rd. Milwaukie, also opened the same day.

Save-A-Lot is one of a number of grocery chains owned by Minnesota-headquartered SuperValu Inc., which bought the Boise-based Albertsons chain in June of this year. Since then, Albertsons has closed six of its least profitable stores in the Portland area. Most of the some 300 union employees at the stores were transferred to other locations, as called for in the Local 555 contract.

Save-A-Lot stores are typically 15,000 square feet and have 15 to 20 employees each. While Save-A-Lot has operations in 39 states, most of its 1,154 stores are in the Midwest. None are unionized.

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