Roughly 4,500 grocery and meat workers struck Portland-area Fred Meyer stores from Aug. 28 through Labor Day weekend. They returned to work Sept. 3, at which point their union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, issued a press release calling for customers to not shop at Fred Meyer “until a fair agreement is reached and Fred Meyer’s admitted price gouging has stopped.”
The claim of price gouging refers to recent federal court testimony by executives of parent company Kroger that its stores raised retail prices for milk and eggs more than the rate of wholesale price inflation.
Local 555 said its six-day strike was to protest unfair labor practices by Fred Meyer. Unions often strike in protest of unfair labor practices rather than for economic grievances because under a longstanding court interpretation of U.S. labor law employers can “permanently replace” strikers in an economic strike. Laying the ground for an unfair labor practice strike, Local 555 filed a charge July 10 with the National Labor Relations Board saying Fred Meyer has refused to provide requested information that’s relevant to negotiations, as it’s required to do under federal labor law. Local 555 asked for detailed data on what Fred Meyer is actually paying members, Local 555 president Dan Clay said at an Aug. 28 press conference, but the company has not cooperated.
The strike included grocery and meat workers at Portland-area stores whose collective bargaining agreements had expired Aug. 10. (That agreement was reached after a one-day strike Dec. 17, 2021.) A separate Portland-area contract covering Fred Meyer non-food workers in retail remains in effect until July 5, 2025, so workers in those departments continued to work during the grocery and meat strike.
Local 555 and Fred Meyer started bargaining the last week of July over new contracts for grocery and meat workers in Portland and Bend, and they continued to bargain during and since the strike. But they remain far apart on wages.
At its web site fredmeyercba.com, Fred Meyer provided details of what it called its best offer to settle a contract, though it said that offer would be taken off the table in the event of a strike. Fred Meyer proposed a three-year agreement with raises for journeymen (the most senior workers) totaling $3.50, starting with an immediate $1.50 and followed by $1 raises in the second and third years. The first raise would go up to $2 if the union agreed to allow Fred Meyer to outsource cut produce, with outside contractors doing the work in the store instead of bargaining unit members. Fred Meyer also proposed to raise the starting wage to $17 an hour, up from $15.70 now. (The current legal minimum wage for the Portland area is $15.45.) Fred Meyer also offered ratification bonuses of $1,000 to $4,000, depending on experience.
But Local 555 is calling for more — hourly raises totaling $7.30 over three years, starting with an immediate raise of $4.30 an hour for Portland-area workers. That figure is what it would take to bring Portland-area workers up to the wages that Fred Meyer pays in Tacoma, Washington. The union proposes that be followed by raises of $2 and $1 in the second and third years of the agreement. Local 555 is also proposing an additional $1.50 an hour for workers with over 10 years at the company.
Fred Meyer has rejected the union’s offer.
“We were told that increasing wages to what the West Coast standard is would cause store closures in Portland,” Clay said.
Once the strike was announced, Fred Meyer told workers they could be fined by the union for working during the strike, but that they could continue to work and avoid the fines by resigning their membership in the union.
At the beginning of the strike, picket lines were enthusiastic, but attendance appeared to dwindle as the days wore on. Though Safeway and other competing stores were booming with diverted customers during the strike, Fred Meyer stores also remained open, staffed by managers and a smattering of workers who crossed the picket line. Many Fred Meyer parking lots remained a third or half full, and thousands of shoppers crossed strike picket lines. Picketers mostly did not try to engage shoppers or try to delay them from entering.
To shield strikers from economic hardship, Local 555 paid a $575 strike benefit to each member. Though that’s less than more senior full-time employees make, for some part-time workers, it was more than they would have made working.
Since the strike ended, Local 555 has been publicizing its boycott call with online ads.
“Don’t get scammed by Kroger. Just shop somewhere else,” says the voiceover in a 15-second ad.
Local 555 reported that when the two sides met again Sept. 11 and 12 (their seventh bargaining session), Fred Meyer offered no additional money. They’ll meet again in October.
Screw Fred Meyer. My wife and I shopped there once or twice a week for years until the Strike. Now we’ll never go back unless they meet the demands of the Union. Safeway and Winco, here we come.
What Fred Meyer offered seems fair compared to raises other businesses hive employees. The union is being unreasonable by insisting on such a high immediate increase that stores would have to close. It is also questionable to me that the union is stating they want wages brought up to “West Coast standards,” when they are basing increases on Tacoma stores without considering wages at all other West Coast stores owned by Kroger.
Just because it wasn’t included in the article, I’d like to point out that the proposed bonus comes with a few conditions.
1) It would be paid for out of the health care fund, meaning workers get less health coverage for a 1 time bonus
2) The bonus would be paid out in 3 years, and would only be given to people who already work there. Meaning that it does nothing for anyone they hire between now and then, and anyone who leaves Fred Meyer won’t receive a cent of the bonus. Since they’ll have already taken the money out, this let’s Fred Meyer keel any money that they don’t have to pay out.
Dear Patty…come to work at one of the stores and see how hard the work and hours are…then you might understand. I have been with one of the companies mentioned four over 40 years. I only make $6 more an hour then minimum wage now. Also please remember most of these employees are considered only part-time and only get part-time hours..
Ok so this is where I say maybe next time search for the answer to your question before you make a statement. The cost of living in Tacoma is less than Portland so why should they get more??? Just saying. Seek to educate yourself, the union obviously was doing it to protect the members that’s what a union is for.
First of all, Kroger has admittedly been gouging customers for years, so they can certainly afford to give up some of that yacht and Lear jet money and pay their employees a living wage. Second, I’d be wary of going to Safeway instead of Fred Meyer because some Safeway stores are owned by Kroger, too. Their claim that having to pay employees more would force them to shutter stores is a bullying tactic and not based in fact. People said the same thing about raising the minimum wage in fast food jobs in California and they have more fast-food jobs now than they did before the wage hike. Stand by and support the employees. These are your neighbors, friends, and community members, trying to make a living and support their families, just like you. The same corporate greed that hurts us is now attacking them. They are not the faceless tyrant overlords trying to pinch pennies, raise prices, and make life more expensive and difficult for the rest of us. I support the employees and until Kroger does the right thing by their employees, I will boycott Fred Meyer and all other Kroger stores and will tell all I know to boycott them, as well.
Kroger does not own Safeway yet it is Albertsons that owns Safeway and yes the wages need to get much higher you have new people being hired at $15 an hour when there’s been the employees already there maybe for 20 years that are at $16 an hour and the new employees do not work nearly as hard as the employees that have been there for a very long time and if you have never worked in a grocery store situation then you have no idea what you are talking about.