On August 19, your Bargaining Committee met with representatives from Kroger, Fred Meyer and QFC for our 4th bargaining session.
Your employer came to the bargaining table and proposed wage increases and a one-time bonus. But guess what? While your employer has been running around and promising to make $1 billion in grocery price cuts, promising to raise your wage and promising to invest in your retirement, their proposal included a grand plan for how you can help them pay for it: by giving them back money out of the Trust Fund (you know, the one that pays for your healthcare).
That’s right: while we have worked hard to effectively manage your health insurance plan, ensuring your costs don’t increase and there is no disruption to your care, your employer wants to use that money– that helps the plan stay healthy and ensure we can weather financial storms– to pay for your wage increase and one-time bonus. Oh, and they are also proposing these wages & one-time bonuses if we agree to allow third-party vendors to perform produce clerks’ work.
The employer has made absolutely zero proposals to increase your retirement benefit, and they are proposing to increase the dental benefit by $500 annually. But only for Level 3 recipients– even though the Union has notified your employer that we can increase this amount significantly, for both Level 2 and Level 3, without increasing your costs or theirs.
The employer continues to insist they are only here to bargain for QFC and Fred Meyer stores in Portland and Bend, Grocery and Meat– no Non Foods and nowhere outside of Portland and Bend. Your Union informed Fred Meyer and QFC that we are bargaining for all areas and all contracts, together as we have in the last several rounds of bargaining. We informed Fred Meyer and QFC that we will be filing charges with the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) as this approach is a violation of Federal law (Unfair Labor Practice, or ULP). Your Bargaining Committee is hell-bent on leaving no contract, area, or state behind. The employer continues to fail to present any proposals on either of the newly organized Non Foods departments in Springfield and Grants Pass (yet another violation of Federal law).
Despite these insults, our Bargaining Committee has remained steadfast in holding Kroger to their public promises: to significantly invest in you and our community by raising your wage, improving your health insurance, and strengthening your retirement. Your Bargaining Committee has remained determined to address the major wage discrepancies throughout our Union’s area in Oregon and Washington, throughout the departments in our stores, and throughout the West Coast. If they can afford to pay it in Tacoma, what makes Portland or Eugene or Bend or Hood River or Coos Bay or Longview– or any other city or town in any of our wonderful communities here in Oregon and Washington– any different?
Our next bargaining session is on August 23. We will keep you updated after our next bargaining session.