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| Kroger Connection: Jan.-Feb.-March, 2010 Issue
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Updated On:
Mar 10, 2010 (11:33:00)
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 Kroger Connection - Latest Edition Now Available! Jan-Feb-March, 2010
Download:
KrogerConnection Jan-Feb-March 2010.pdf
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For good contracts,
representation & job security…
We’re Stronger Together
I’m pleased to introduce this first edition of Local
400’s Kroger Connection – a new publication to build
communication and unity among our 11,000 repre-
sented Kroger employees in Virginia, West Virginia
and portions of eastern Tennessee and Kentucky and
Ohio.
As you’ll see in this issue, major developments
for Local 400’s three Kroger divisions include the ne-
gotiations for 2,500 workers under our Richmond and
Tidewater Virginia contract, set to expire in March
2010, and a new union growth initiative directed at
all non members -- 400UNITED – which began in late
September 2009 and is now in effect throughout all
Local 400 Kroger divisions.
Both the bargaining and expanded internal
growth efforts will directly affect all Kroger employ-
ees. The Richmond-Tidewater contract will influence
future bargaining in the other Kroger divisions and
our success there depends on member unity and sup-
port throughout the supermarket chain.
As for 400UNITED, this is a campaign to build
union membership in our ranks and bolster Local
400’s ability to provide excellent daily representation,
protect union market share and negotiate union con-
tracts with strong wages, benefits, working conditions
and job protections.
I first announced the 400UNITED organizing pro-
gram at a stewards seminar in Roanoke, Va., last April
and stewards there were excited by the
idea because they face a special
challenge in growing our mem-
bership: The state’s “right to
work” law prohibits union se-
curity agreements requiring
that all employees join the
With negotiations set to begin in the first quarter of 2010 for
nearly 2,500 Kroger employees in the Richmond and Tide-
water areas of Virginia, members got a chance to discuss
bargaining issues with top union officers and staff negotiators at
meetings in Richmond and Norfolk in November.
Kroger ConnectionVoLume 1, ISSue 1 January-FeBruary-marcH 2010
uFcW LocaL 400
Richmond and Tidewater
Members Meet With Leaders
Bargaining issues
Continued on next page
Growth Program to
Bolster union Strength
–Page 3c. JamEs LoWThERs
LocaL 400 PreSIdent
Continued on page 2
Sec.-Treas. Tom McNutt
answers member questions
at Richmond meeting. For good contracts,
representation & job security…
We’re Stronger Together
I’m pleased to introduce this first edition of Local
400’s Kroger Connection – a new publication to build
communication and unity among our 11,000 repre-
sented Kroger employees in Virginia, West Virginia
and portions of eastern Tennessee and Kentucky and
Ohio.
As you’ll see in this issue, major developments
for Local 400’s three Kroger divisions include the ne-
gotiations for 2,500 workers under our Richmond and
Tidewater Virginia contract, set to expire in March
2010, and a new union growth initiative directed at
all non members -- 400UNITED – which began in late
September 2009 and is now in effect throughout all
Local 400 Kroger divisions.
Both the bargaining and expanded internal
growth efforts will directly affect all Kroger employ-
ees. The Richmond-Tidewater contract will influence
future bargaining in the other Kroger divisions and
our success there depends on member unity and sup-
port throughout the supermarket chain.
As for 400UNITED, this is a campaign to build
union membership in our ranks and bolster Local
400’s ability to provide excellent daily representation,
protect union market share and negotiate union con-
tracts with strong wages, benefits, working conditions
and job protections.
I first announced the 400UNITED organizing pro-
gram at a stewards seminar in Roanoke, Va., last April
and stewards there were excited by the
idea because they face a special
challenge in growing our mem-
bership: The state’s “right to
work” law prohibits union se-
curity agreements requiring
that all employees join the
With negotiations set to begin in the first quarter of 2010 for
nearly 2,500 Kroger employees in the Richmond and Tide-
water areas of Virginia, members got a chance to discuss
bargaining issues with top union officers and staff negotiators at
meetings in Richmond and Norfolk in November.
Kroger ConnectionVoLume 1, ISSue 1 January-FeBruary-marcH 2010
uFcW LocaL 400
Richmond and Tidewater
Members Meet With Leaders
Bargaining issues
Continued on next page
Growth Program to
Bolster union Strength
–Page 3c. JamEs LoWThERs
LocaL 400 PreSIdent
Continued on page 2
Sec.-Treas. Tom McNutt
answers member questions
at Richmond meeting.
Bargaining Issues
Continued from page 1
Secretary-Treasurer Thomas McNutt presented
results of a membership bargaining survey that allowed
members to voice their suggestions for improving
wages, benefits, vacations, holidays and
working conditions.
The meetings, attended by about 200 members,
were “very positive,” said Angela Chiles, a
steward and member of the rank-and-file bargaining
advisory committee. “Members got the chance
to ask lots of questions about the bargaining process
and talk about the issues they care most
about.”
Specific contract proposals are still being
formulated on major issues such as wages and
health benefits, although negotiators shared a
few proposals already drafted to improve working
conditions, transfer rights, union security, health
and safety, and to create joint labor-management
committees to address problems and ideas of
mutual concern.
The current contract expires March 27, 2010.
We’re Stronger together
Continued from page 1
union – despite the fact that every employee benefits from union representation
and the terms of the union contract.
Even with this road block, Local 400 shop stewards find that when
employees learn the facts – what Local 400 is really all about – they
are receptive to joining our ranks and lending support to our efforts to
secure our jobs and our futures. (See “New Employee Outreach Effort
Builds Union Awareness, Membership Growth,” page 3.)
Among these facts: Studies repeatedly show that union workers
earn substantially better pay and benefits than non-union workers.
Unlike “right to work” states like Virginia, states like Maryland, West
Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio as well as the District of Columbia provide for
Union Security – guaranteeing 100% union membership and support,
and contracts that always provide better wage-benefit packages than in
areas where union strength is weakened by “right to work” (for less).
Well,Virginia,we’re fighting back with 400UNITED.We’re determined
to spur membership growth at Kroger to levels that will insure our ability
to bargain good contracts, protect union market share and represent our
members effectively every day.
Protecting our jobs isn’t just about bargaining. A strong membership
base gives Local 400 the resources to help defend Kroger’s market
share – and our own job security – from the invasion of non-union retail
predators like Walmart and Martin’s (currently known as UKrop’s in Richmond).
A good example is the story on page 5 of this issue reporting
Local 400’s successful effort to block a planned Walmart Supercenter
in Blacksburg, Va.
Every rank-and-file member can play a role in growing our membership,
building our union and protecting our jobs by protecting our market
share. It’s the responsibility of all of us to encourage membership among
our co-workers.
Please join with us in 400UNITED – become a union-builder.
2 Kroger Connection
New Employee Outreach
Program Builds Union Awareness
and Membership Growth
Patricia Whitehurst
“Our message is, a
strong membership
means fewer problems in
the stores and a better
union contract.”
-- Patricia Whitehurst
It’s called 400UNITED – a program to educate all Kroger employees
about the benefits of union membership and their rights
to representation under the union contract.
All Local 400 contracts at Kroger now
have a provision that requires management
to introduce new workers to a shop
steward their first week on the job. That’s
especially important in reaching workers
in “right to work” states like Virginia and
Tennessee, where anti-union laws prohibit
union security agreements.
“New employees often don’t even
know that a store is unionized,” said Patricia
Whitehurst, a Kroger shop steward
in Virginia Beach. The new-hire provision
in the contract guarantees that new employees
learn about the union and their
contract right away.
“We let them know that their wages
and benefits come from collective
bargaining,” says Whitehurst. “If they
don’t sign up for membership right
away, I know they’ll come looking for
me before long when they have a problem,
and then they’ll usually become a
member.”
Whitehurst and her two fellow stewards
have tripled membership at the store
in just three years through making it “our
mission” to sign up every new hire and
also maintain close communications with
all employees. “Our message is, a strong
membership means fewer problems in
the stores and a better union contract,”
she says.
Local 400 shop stewards at Kroger
stores across Virginia and Tennessee
can testify that when given the real facts
about unions – and about the power of
worker solidarity – more employees than
not will become members.
400UNITED is an intensified outreach
effort that not only is boosting membership
but also participation in the union’s
political action program, the Active Ballot
Club (ABC).
Even in states like West Virginia,
where the local has a union security
Continued on back page
January-February-March 2010 3
Know Your Union Representatives
The Local 400 Regional Directors and Representatives shown here are responsible for contract enforcement covering
our 11,000 represented Kroger employees at 113 stores.
Terry Dixon, Regional Director
Roanoke and Richmond Divisions
Nelson Graham, Regional Director
West Virginia Division
Heith Fenner,
Representative
Robert Brown,
Representative
Mark Collins,
Representative
Teressa Ransone,
Representative
Jeff Seaman,
Representative
Chuck Miller,
Representative
Heith #508 #536 #273 teressa #364 #734 #783 #722
Fenner #509 #537 #316 ransone #391 #743 #784 #730
#239 #510 #538 #320 #118 #399 #750 #785 #739
#334
#359
robert
Brown
#500
#501
#502
#503
#511
#512
#513
#515
#520
#523
#525
#530
#532
#539
mark
collins
#176
#192
#202
#210
#215
#325
#328
#330
#335
#345
#367
#375
#209
#228
#235
#265
#300
#310
#322
#326
#327
#403
#404
#405
#406
#407
#408
Jeff
Seaman
#751
#754
#763
#765
#768
#769
#770
#772
#778
#788
#790
#792
#796
#805
#817
chuck
miller
#752
#753
#755
#773
#776
#787
#799
#807
#504 #533 #226 #400 #343 #668 #780 #688
#505 #534 #255 #401 #347 #669 #781 #708
#507 #535 #261 #402 #350 #725 #782 #714
January-February-March 2010 4
A Clear & Present Danger
Local 400 Helps
Block Job-threatening
Walmart Incursion in
Blacksburg, Va.
Local 400 members can be proud that
their efforts helped block Walmart from dev
astating Blacksburg, Virginia’s historic and
scenic downtown area with one of its giant
Supercenters and saving the jobs of many
Local 400 Kroger members and others in the
process.
Concerned citizens and business owners
approached Local 400 for help when Wal
mart attempted to use its political muscle to
overturn zoning restrictions against big box
stores in the downtown area. Local 400 Or
ganizing Director Jim Hepner, a native of that
area, was dispatched to work with Blacksburg
United for Responsible Growth, “the BURG,
in holding public forums to describe how the
Supercenters can devour competing busi
nesses and undermine community wage and
benefit standards.
Ultimately,the city of Blacksburg opposed
the Walmart development, but the retail titan
then went to court and managed to win a rul
ing overturning the zoning restriction against
the Supercenter. But the citizens and Local
400 prevailed last February when the Virginia
Supreme Court reversed the lower court, thus
blocking the big box deal for good.
“When it was clear that Walmart wasn’t
coming in, the downtown Kroger remodeled
and expanded, creating many more jobs,
Local 400 President Jim Lowthers reported.
What’s more, blocking the deal helped save
jobs at four other Kroger stores within a 45-
mile radius, including locations in Christian
burg and Radford, Va., he said.
NO
WALMARThERE!
5 Kroger Connection
L
L
ocal 400 and our Kroger members in Richmond are facing a direct,
powerful challenge to union market share – meaning our contract
standards and jobs – with the invasion of the Dutch mega-conglomerate
Royal Ahold.
Ahold’s recent purchase of the family-owned Ukrop’s grocery chain brings not only
tremendous competitive marketing muscle to bear against Kroger, it brings to the
Richmond community a Walmart-style contempt for workers and their job conditions,
and hostility toward unions and collective bargaining.
It’s a development that strongly underscores the message of our 400United initiative
and the themes outlined in this issue of Kroger Connection – we have to continue
shoring up our union ranks, our resources and our own collective power to protect and
expand our market share.
Ahold operates in a “double-breasted” fashion, which means it walls off its unionized
operations (where it inherited union contracts in previous acquisitions, such as
Giant Food) from its growing non-union sector.
It’s the non-union Ahold subsidiary, based in Carlisle, Pa., that has been flooding
Virginia with its Martin’s supermarkets to compete with Kroger --and that now has
swept up the 25-store Ukrop’s chain in Richmond.
For months the Ukrop’s workers have been nervous, understandably, knowing that
their company was up for sale. The Dec. 17 announcement that the buyer was Royal
Ahold surely was their worst nightmare.
Ukrop’s long maintained a paternal relationship with its workers and took pride in
its local roots, supporting many community service projects over the years. Employees,
customers and the community at large are bound to see a far different attitude
from the giant, bottom-line-oriented Ahold, whose executives command an empire of
more than 6,000 supermarkets worldwide from their offices in Amsterdam.
For Kroger workers in Richmond and around the region – and for all of us – the
Ahold/Martin’s incursion is truly a clear and present danger, a threat to union jobs and
working conditions. But we’re gearing up for the fight, and we know what it takes. It
means building our union by organizing both internally and externally.
Through unity and resolve, I’m confident it’s a fight we can win.
Thomas mcNUTT
Loc a L 400 Secre t ar y trea S urer
“We have to continue shoring up our
union ranks, our resources and our
own collective power to protect and
expand our market share.”
United Food and commerical
Workers Local 400
4301 Garden City Drive
Landover, MD 20785
Change Service Requested
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Hyattsville, MD
Permit No. 4084
400 united
Continued from page 3
Larry Southern Kenneth Coy Angela Chiles
provision, greater steward contact with new employees under
400UNITED is building a strong spirit of union solidarity and
awareness of how the local’s political and legislative programs
benefit members and their families.
In Bridgeport, W. Va., shop steward Larry Southern says
nearly 90 percent of new hires at his store are signing up for
ABC (politcal) participation after he and his two fellow stewards
explain how electing pro-worker candidates to office “is vital to
protecting overtime pay and many of the benefits and rights that
we’ve achieved over the years.” He reports that employees
are interested in knowing about the Employee Free Choice Act
(EFCA), noting that, “Even non-union people at Walmart and
Kmart come up to me and ask about EFCA. They are scared
to death, but they know the free choice bill will help them get a
union, and they want what we have.”
The new Kroger workers “are very appreciative of getting to
sit down with us and learn about their contract rights,” says
Southern. “A lot of them don’t even know they are entitled to a
week’s vacation after a year among other things.”
At Kenneth Coy’s store in Roanoke, Va., the new employee
provision hadn’t been enforced until two months ago, when Coy
became a shop steward. “When we started enforcing it, management
willingly complied,” he says – and the result has been
more than a dozen new union members in that short time.
“Most people are receptive to hearing about the union if
you take the time to sit down with them,” according to Coy.
Now Coy and assistant steward Paul Muse are planning to hold
meetings with longer-term non-members in each department.
“Many of these employees never had a chance to learn about
unions and collective bargaining and to ask questions of a
steward,” he said. In one department meeting so far, four
out of the five who attended became members on the spot, he
reported.
Coy brings a special credibility to the table when he talks to
workers: He has been a UFCW member on and off since 1972,
starting in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and he recently
worked a few years at a non-union store in North Carolina. “I
can tell people first-hand, without a union, you have no security,
no dignity. It’s night and day.”
In Richmond, Angela “A.C.” Chiles and her fellow shop steward
have built union membership in their store to more than 80
percent by making sure they talk to each newly hired employee,
and by keeping in close touch with every single worker – whether
a union member or not.
“You have to remember, non-members today are potential
members tomorrow. It never fails – sooner or later they will
come to me with a problem and then they find out what a union
is all about,” she says.
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| Quartly Mtg | Retiree Mtg
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