MEIJER TO RECOGNIZE UNION AT 4 SUPERCENTERS IN OHIO

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Meijer Inc. here has agreed to recognize United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 954 at its four stores in Toledo, Ohio, following a strike that lasted nine weeks.

It was believed to be the first strike against Meijer in the company's 60-year history.

UFCW International, however, maintained picket lines late last week at four Meijer stores in Indiana that remain nonunion, Al Zack, assistant director of organizing for UFCW International, told SN.

Meijer management reportedly had hoped to operate the Indiana stores on a nonunion basis indefinitely, Zack said. They are "reassessing their corporate decision," he added.

"Our hope is that management will go back to the position of neutrality [on the union issue] and leave it up to employees" whether or not to unionize, he said.

Meijer officials declined comment last week on the labor situation in both Ohio and Indiana. Meijer's 53 stores in Michigan, its home market, have historically employed union workers.

The Toledo strike resulted in picket lines not only at the four Toledo stores but also at 14 other Meijer locations. The four stores in Toledo had opened more than a year earlier on a nonunion basis.

The strike began May 6 when contract negotiations reached an impasse after the UFCW had secured employee recognition. Members of Local 954 ratified the contract with Meijer July 8, following a June 30 agreement, Zack said.

Following the settlement, the union pulled its picket lines from

the four Toledo stores and 10 other units in Ohio and southern Michigan. It maintained the pickets at the company's four Indiana locations, including two in Indianapolis, one in South Bend and one in Mishawaka. The Indiana picket lines began as informational protests when the stores opened earlier this year, but were extended to strike lines after the strike began in Toledo, Zack said.

With the settlement in Toledo, all 53 of Meijer's Michigan stores and all but one of its 27 stores in Ohio have now been organized, Zack said. The exception is a store in Mansfield, Ohio, which is covered by the Columbus local.

"Meijer reneged on a promise to do a card-check (to validate the employees' desire to unionize) at that store," Zack said, "but it has now agreed to do the check."

According to Zack, the agreement in Toledo was "the best first contract we've ever negotiated with Meijer." The contract included a higher top rate for all classifications, "which means a higher wage base for future negotiations," Zack said.