Grocery union reverses support for Kroger, Albertsons merger

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 555 has changed course in its support for the proposed $24.6 billion Kroger, Albertsons merger, releasing a statement on Saturday announcing it’s pulling its support for the deal.

The union represents some 30,000 workers, many of whom are employees at Kroger and Albertsons banners in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming. 

The move comes as roughly 4,500 workers at Kroger-owned Fred Meyer stores in metro Portland, Oregon, authorized an unfair labor practices strike. The union has not yet selected a date for the strike. 

“While our local was the only local to publicly support the merger of Kroger and Albertsons, we have changed our position as a result of new information as part of the bargaining process,” Union President Dan Clay said in a press release. “Korger’s continued failure to not live up to their commitments in current contracts while being given every opportunity is disappointing. 

“Their obnoxious decisions at the bargaining table have let down both their workers and their customers. We’ve had no other option but to file a federal lawsuit on the matter and withdraw our support for the merger.”

An Albertsons spokesperson declined comment, and a Kroger spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Related:Ohio AG calls on court to toss FTC lawsuit on Kroger, Albertsons merger

The decision comes six months after UFCW 555 announced its support of the merger, making it the only local in the country to support the deal. 

The issue for the union is centered on the store divestiture part of the deal, wherein Kroger and Albertsons would collectively sell 579 stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers in an effort to appease federal regulators and attorneys general across the country concerned that the merger would create a monopoly. 

Many of those stores on the divestiture list are located in Oregon, Idaho, and Southwest Washington.  

In February, Clay said a meeting with C&S Wholesale Grocers leadership eased the union’s concerns that C&S Wholesale Grocers would uphold labor obligations made by Kroger and Albertsons. 

“C&S has the opportunity to bring a long-term strategy to a grocery industry focused on the short-term demands of shareholders and private-equity investors,” Clay said in February. “Employees of Kroger and C&S will be better off than employees of other potential buyers whose actions never seem to match the image they project publically. In a refreshing change of pace, C&S seems poised to deliver a much-needed fresh perspective for employees and customers alike.”

Miles Eshaia, a spokesperson for Local 555, said in an interview with Supermarket News in February that Albertsons owner Cerberus Capital Management plans to sell the chain even if the Kroger deal falls through. 

Related:Kroger says it plans to lower prices by $1B following Albertsons merger

Meanwhile, unions across the country have opposed the merger. In July, members of locals 7, 324, 400, 770, and 3000 held a press conference to voice their opposition to the deal. 

That press conference came one day after Kroger and Albertsons released a full list of the 579 locations that would be divested if the deal is approved. 

“Yesterday, you may have heard that Kroger and Albertsons released a list of 579 stores across the nation that they are proposing to divest to C&S Wholesale Grocers if the merger is allowed to proceed. Making this list public changes nothing,” UFCW 770 President Kathy Finn said in July. “The merger is not a done deal, and this coalition continues to do everything we can to stop it.”