ROSEVILLE, Calif. — United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 8-Golden State here said Tuesday it has established informational picket lines at two Fresh & Easy stores in Sacramento that opened last week.
The union said additional picket lines would be set up at three Fresh & Easy stores scheduled to open Wednesday in the communities of Elk Grove, Folsom and Lincoln, all near Sacramento. It is already picketing at Fresh & Easy locations in other parts of Northern California.
Jacques Loveall, president of Local 8-Golden State, said the union is asking consumers to shop at unionized stores in the area rather than at Fresh & Easy "[because] Tesco, Fresh & Easy's parent company in the United Kingdom, is siphoning money out of our community. We are responding to that provocation.
"California has enough challenges without a foreign company coming in with substandard jobs that threaten good local companies that bring value and good jobs to our community. It's bad enough good American jobs are exported overseas at an alarming rate. Now this global giant from the U.K. is coming to our country thinking it can take advantage of American workers on our own turf. We will not allow that to happen."
A Fresh & Easy spokesman told SN, "We’re thrilled to have created more than 150 jobs with good pay and health care benefits in Sacramento – and certainly the hundreds of Sacramentans who applied for open positions agree that Fresh & Easy is a great place to work. We’ve had a great response from all our new neighbors and we look forward to opening more stores and introducing ourselves to even more neighborhoods."