LOS ANGELES -- The seven Southern California locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union are threatening to take aggressive actions over what they see as displacement of union workers at an Albertsons that had its lease sold to Bristol Farms to be operated as a non-union store.
Albertsons acquired Bristol Farms last fall and operates it as a wholly owned subsidiary. Bristol executives maintain taking over the lease from Albertsons is no different from acquiring a store from another operator, while the union sees a union company allowing a store to be operated on a non-union basis.
Bristol Farms acquired the lease on the Westchester store in June and plans to reopen it under its own banner at the end of the year.
The store closed as an Albertsons last Thursday, and the union was scheduled to hold a rally in the parking lot of the store that day.
Albertsons told SN last week all employees at the Westchester store have been placed in jobs at other Albertsons locations nearby.
"Albertsons has refused to discuss the Bristol Farms acquisition with the UFCW," the union said in a flier to its members. "Albertsons claims they operate as two separate companies independent of each other. Albertsons thinks we are stupid."
In the flier, the UFCW accused Albertsons of "corporate greed" for trying to operate a portion of its stores on a non-union basis. "Allowing Albertsons to [do so] is absolutely intolerable," the union said.
"The fruits of your hard work enabled Albertsons ... to obtain Bristol Farms. Albertsons will convert existing unionized Albertsons to non-union Bristol Farms. Albertsons intends to replace good union jobs with non-union, substandard positions.
"Albertsons has continually denied any responsibility to their employees or the community with regards to the conversion of their stores and the effects on the workers or the local economy."
In a boldface heading, the flier said, "UFCW is ready to fight."
The union said it has informed Albertsons it will "be aggressively communicating with labor leaders, community leaders, politicians and the customers regarding the adverse effects of converting stores and displacing long-term union workers."
"The UFCW is prepared to employ a professional public relations advertising campaign educating the customers. We will be communicating to the public via fliers, high-impact direct mailings, television commercials, radio ads, billboards and any other effective media necessary to protect you."
Kevin Davis, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Bristol Farms, said the company has operated on a non-union basis for all of its 22 years, with 75% of employees earning higher wages than they would at a union store and all employees -- in management and at store level -- earning the same benefits. "We believe we have a good relationship with our employees because we work together as a team, not as management vs. employees," Davis told SN.
