Strike Against 'Big Three' Grocery Chains in Southern California Could Be Just Around the Corner

UFCW Local 770 president Rick Icaza (center) speaks at today's rally in Los Angeles. At right in the yellow shirt is Connie Leyva, president of  local 1428. To Icaza's left is Maria Elena Durazo, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. The "L.A. Isn't Wisconsin" signs refer to the state's controversial new law banning public employee collective bargaining.

Southern California Market Region
News/Analysis

The ongoing contract negotiations between the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union in Southern California and the region's "Big Three" grocery chains - Kroger Co.-owned Ralphs', Safeway's Vons and Albertsons, which is owned by Supervalu, Inc. - took a turn closer in the direction of a strike by union grocery clerks today when the presidents of the seven union locals in the region and leaders of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor held a rally and press conference late this morning at the federation's headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

Attending the event in support of the UFCW locals and its members were numerous representatives from labor unions representing police officers, firefighters, teachers, truck drivers, warehouse workers and even actors and entertainers, along with union members who work in stores owned and operated by the three supermarket chains.

The many representatives of the allied unions, which are a part of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor umbrella organization, said at today's press conference they would support the UFCW locals should they decide to go out on strike against the "Big Three" unionized supermarket chains, which also happen to be the three market-share-leading grocers in Southern California - Ralphs' being number one, followed by Safeway's Vons and Supervalu's Albertsons.

Strike could come soon

Talk of a strike was the topic on the minds and lips of the presidents of the UFCW union locals and their supporters today at the rally and press conference - and the rhetoric was heated.

For example, in describing the key sticking point between union negotiators and representatives of the three grocery chains, which is a proposal by the grocers to shift a significant percentage of employee health benefits now being paid by the retailers to store employees, Greg Conger, president of UFCW Local 324, called the health care benefits cost-shifting proposal by the "Big Three" chains: "A ruse that ignores the fact that these companies continue to post multi-billion profits annually. That isn’t an insignificant footnote," Conger said. "The impact of these proposals is a matter of life and death for some of our members."

All the Southern California UFCW presidents at the rally and press conference today said a strike against the three grocery chains could be coming soon, which was an obvious strategic attempt, as was the rally and press conference itself, to energize the ongoing contract negotiations, which have been going on since April and are at what is essentially an impasse over the health care benefit cost-shifting proposal by the grocers.

We aren't suggesting a strike might not be coming soon. Rather we're suggesting today's event is the opening salvo; a message of sorts to the grocery chains in advance of calling an actual strike, which the union and its members would like to avoid, as would the grocers.

Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770 was blunt and to the point speaking today about the current state of the contract negotiations and his feelings about the likelihood of a strike happening, saying: "We're so far apart, if something doesn't happen soon, we will have a strike."

As we've previously reported, on April 21 union members authorized the UFCW locals to call a strike if and when it decides to. Since then contract negotiations have continued. In May a federal mediator was brought in at the request of the UFCW to assist with the talks. The strike clock gained a significant amount of time today.

The three grocery chains reacted to today's rally and press conference by issuing a joint press release in which they said: "We are still actively negotiating, and any talk of a strike is unnecessary. The only place where we can reach an agreement is at the bargaining table, and we believe our focus should be there, reaching a fair and reasonable contract."

As we've noted in our ongoing reporting and analysis of the contact negotiations, the grocers are serious about shifting a significant percentage of employee health costs to the workers. These chain's want employees to pay more out-of-pocket than they currently are (the cost-shifting) for monthly premiums, deductibles, co-payments and a couple other aspects involving the health care plans.

The UFCW said in late May the proposal submitted to it by the "Big Three" chains was unacceptable. Since then neither side has made a significant enough compromise. Therefore the talks have been and are at a stalemate in terms of moving forward.

A couple of our sources at the chains are telling us that if a strike is called there's a feeling of confidence among certain senior management people that because of the high unemployment rate in much of Southern California (the state has a 12.4% jobless rate) that they could hire replacement workers rapidly, which would come after the union calls a strike.

There's been discussion among the union locals about whether to strike all three chains at one time or one or two initially. Albertsons is the most often mentioned target we hear from our union sources if just one chain is chosen initially. But we are increasingly being told by our grocer sources that if one or two of the three chains is targeted  initially, the others will call an employee lockout in support of whatever chain or chains get hit with a strike first, in a united-we-stand solidarity pact.

Changed landscape: 2003-to-2011

The last time there was a major grocery strike in Southern California - the affected area includes all of Southern California to the Mexico border, the south coast to Mammoth, and the southern Central Valley - was in 2003. That strike lasted about five months before the grocers and union locals reached a contract agreement that was ratified by the union members.

In the nearly nine years since the 2003 grocery strike, the food and grocery retailing competitive landscape in Southern California  has changed considerably.

While Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons remain the "Big Three" market share leaders in the region, their overall and respective shares have been eroded considerably, primarily by a number of non-union food retailers in the region, including: Costco, Walmart, Target, Trader Joe's, WinCo Foods, Smart & Final, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and a number of others, including more than one ethnic-focused grocery chain, plus dollar/99-cent and drug store chains, all after a share of the food and grocery dollar in mega-populated Southern California.

Combined, these retailers have opened thousands of new stores in Southern California over the last nine years, exerting significant competitive and price pressure on the "Big Three."

In fact, the vast majority of all the new food and grocery-focused square-footage in the region over the last eight years has been from these and other non-union grocers, as the "Big Three" have opened only a small number of new stores each year from 2003 to the present, compared to the non-union players.

Strange bedfellows

It's just this phenomenon that presents a "Catch 22" when it comes to a strike by the UFCW union against the "Big Three" unionized chains - a strike against Ralphs', Vons and Albertsons would provide a major benefit to Walmart, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Tesco's Fresh & Easy and the other non-union chain's mentioned above, the store-level workers of which the UFCW is trying to organize in various degrees and hopes will eventually become unionized.

For example, nothing would make Tesco CEO Philip Clarke and his deputy, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason, happier than to see the UFCW, which has been conducting an aggressive three-plus year campaign to unionize Fresh & Easy's store workers, call a strike against the "Big Three" chains so it could, it hopes, grab some much-needed added sales and business for its 108 stores in Southern California and the Bakersfield region in the southern Central Valley.

And ironically, the longer a strike against the three chains the better for Fresh & Easy, because in addition to allowing the fledgling 175-store chain to grab whatever added sales it could, a protracted strike would also allow new shoppers to become familiar with Fresh & Easy because in strike situations shoppers tend to seek out grocery stores they haven't shopped in before.

There are also about 2 million union members (if you include family members) in Southern California. A big part of organized labor's strategy in 2003, and it would be again this year, in a strike is to convince as any of those union family members as possible not to set foot in a grocery store owned by Kroger, Safeway or Supervalu, along with getting UFCW members and their families elsewhere in California and across the U.S. to boycott stores owned by the grocers.

The "Big Three" chains in Southern California, plus Stater Bros., lost over $2 billion in sales during the about five months the 2003 strike lasted. That's why the longer a strike lasts the better it would be for Tesco's Fresh & Easy and all the other non-union chain's mentioned earlier. Stater Bros., which is unionized and is the fourth-largest chain in the region, is negotiating on its own with the UFCW locals this time around. Historically it has participated in contract negotiations with the other three chains.

If you listen closely, you can even hear the sounds of ringing cash registers in the Southern California offices of those non-union food and grocery retailers, including at Fresh & Easy's headquarters in El Segundo, as the possibility of a strike against the "Big Three" chains gets closer to becoming a reality.

Related Stories

May 23, 2011: Odds Southern California Grocery Store Workers Will Strike Highest Since Contract Talks Began

May 12, 2011: Execs, Employees and the UFCW Union: A Look Under (Tesco) Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 'Hood'

April 25, 2011: Talks Between Southern California's 'Big Three' Grocery Chains and UFCW Union Resume Tomorrow

April 21, 2011: Southern California Grocery Store Workers Vote to Authorize Strike Against 'Big Three' Chains

April 20, 2011: Pro-Union Workers' Group and UFCW Union Speak Out On Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's $300 Million-Plus Loss

April 5, 201: UFCW Union, Activists and Employees Hold Pro-Union Rallies at 25 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in California

Odds Southern California Grocery Store Workers Will Strike Highest Since Contract Talks Began

Southern California Market Region
News/Analysis

The odds unionized grocery store workers in Southern California, (and the Central Coast and southern Central Valley) strike one or more of the region's "big three" unionized supermarket chains - Kroger's Ralphs, Safeway's Vons, and Albertsons, which is owned by Supervalu, Inc. - are much more likely today than they were just a week ago, based on our reporting and in our analysis.

Why? Last week representatives for the three grocery chains noted above presented negotiators from the United Foods & Commercial Workers' (UFCW) locals in Southern California with a proposal that details the health care plan changes - read significant cuts - the grocers want as part of the new three year contract that's being negotiated involving the chains and the about 60,000 unionized grocery store workers in the region.

Last month the union presented the chains with their health care plan proposal. The proposal from the grocers was their counter-offer, which is what the union says it's been waiting for since April.

And the presidents of the UFCW locals in Southern California pronounced the proposal, which would shift a considerable amount of health care costs to the store workers, dead on arrival.

For example, Ricardo Icaza, the president of UFCW local 770 which represent about 36,000 of the 60,000 unionized retail clerks in a region that stretches from Santa Maria on the Central Coast to Bakersfield in the southern Central Valley and includes Los Angeles County out to the Lancaster/Palmdale area in the desert, said in a note to union members on Thursday, May 19: "Ralphs, Vons, and Albertsons presented your union with a proposal that would effectively destroy your health coverage." No ambiguity in that statement.

On Friday, Michael Straeter, president of UFCW local 1442 which represents unionized retail clerks from Malibu to Long Beach in Southern California, had a similar message for the members of his local, saying: " [The] health care proposal from the company [Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons] shifts 80% of new costs to you," meaning the union members. "Stay strong as negotiations continue," he added in the message to the rank-and-file.

Straeter, who says the proposed health care plan changes will shift $450 million over three years from the supermarket chains to workers, also told his members to prepare to start picketing as early as this coming weekend.

The negotiations between UFCW representatives and the three supermarket chains will continue this week. The negotiators for both parties will once again be joined by a federal mediator, who's assisting with the talks at the request of the UFCW union.

But the union locals are thinking beyond what is an obvious impasse, in our analysis - the grocers say their proposal regarding the heath care plan changes is "reasonable" but the UFCW locals say it's a non-starter, which equals an impasse for all intents and purposes, even though the negotiations will continue. The federal mediator will obviously be busy mediating this week.

Union stewards and picket captains have been told by the union leaders to attend a meeting on Thursday, May 26, in which the possibility of forming picket lines at one or all three chains will be discussed. A UFCW representative told us Friday that the picket signs are already being made.

The UFCW members authorized the union on April 21 to call a strike if and when it decides to do so. (See the related stories linked at the end of this piece.)

What we're being told by more than one source a present - and this information is always subject to change - is that if a strike is called anytime soon, the current plan is to stage a walkout on Supervalu's Albertson's chain, which is the number three grocer among the "big three" in terms of annual sales and market share in Southern California. Kroger's Ralphs' is number one. Safeway Stores-owned Vons is number two.

We're also being told from other sources, on the chain side of the equation in this instance, that Ralphs' is likely to lock its employees out of the stores (meaning no work and no pay) should the UFCW and its members strike Albertsons. If Ralphs does this, Safeway's Vons is likely to follow suit, although most of our sources are far less sure about Safeway's thinking on the matter than they are about Ralphs'.

Kroger Co.'s Ralphs' division is still in court with the UFCW union over various actions involving the 2003 Southern California grocery workers strike and lockout by the chain, in fact.

The stakes are very high for the UFCW locals for a number of reasons if they do call a strike .

First, if they strike one or more of the three chains, they will be handing a whole bunch of new business to the many non-union grocers in Southern California, including Walmart, Target, Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market/Henry's, Bristol Farms, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and others, that they're trying to unionize. Most of the non-union chains are already gearing up for a strike and thinking about the extra business it could bring their stores.

Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons are already under heavy pressure from the non-union players in Southern California that since the last contract was signed in 2007 have continued to grow - not to mention there being new entries to the market since 2007, like Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which now has 101 stores in Southern California and seven in the Bakersfield region (out of its 175 total in California, Nevada and Arizona) - and take sales and market share from the "big three."

All of the fastest growing chains in the region are non-union. The "big three" unionized chains have added few stores in Southern California in comparison to all of the non-union grocers mentioned above.

At the other side of the negotiating table, Kroger's Ralphs, Safeway's Vons and Supervalu' Albertsons appear at present to be very firm on the cost reductions they say they need in the health care plans. They're saying very little publicly but are offering the message that health care costs are at the top of the list of their fastest-rising expenses.

 Look for the end of the week starting today to be a crucial point in time in the labor negotiations. If no material progress is made between the two parties this week - and there isn't going to be unless the chain's take back much of what they're asking for in the health benefits proposal, which the odds of happening are less than 5% in our analysis - then a complete impasse will be reached, meaning the union will feel the need to seriously consider a strike against one of more of the three chain's at week's end.

We suspect picketing and leafleting will come first, before a strike is called, if it is. We also don't expect a strike to be called this week or next week. But the following week,if there's no material improvement in the negotiations, the hoof beats for a strike on at least one chain are going to be very loud, in our analysis.

And perhaps the "big three" unionized chains would welcome a strike if avoiding one means giving in significantly on the takeaways they're asking for in their proposal. (They will take less than what they desire and are asking for now in the long run though. But it could be a very long run.)

Our take is that the grocers are very serious about achieving some significant savings in their costs for the union employees' health care plan. It's also our take that the union is very serious about accepting more than a small percentage of increased costs to workers for their health care plans. Stalemate

But the potential labor pool in Southern California is vast at present, since unemployment in most of the region remains in double digits. We suspect people would be lined up by the hundreds at Ralphs supermarkets in Southern California if, for example, the UFCW strikes Albertsons, and Kroger's Ralphs locks out it employees.

For example, grocers opening new stores in Southern California over the last three years generally get four or five times as many people applying for jobs at the store then they have positions available.

Additionally, organized labor and unions also are at an all time low in terms of the percentage of Americans that  favor them. A strike by the UFCW of one or more of the "big three" unionized supermarket chains could have the undesired consequence for the UFCW of the majority of consumers coming out in support of the grocers rather than the store employees, particularly because in times of high unemployment both the unemployed, the under-employed and insecure employed have far less sympathy for and are less likely to support labor strikes.

In contrast, if the union thinks the offer by the grocers is outrageous, taking more time to build that case among the grocery shopping public in Southern California could lead to greater support for the store workers than if a strike is called within the next few weeks, for example. It's all about gaging and influencing public opinion.

Another factor worth noting is that the ever-increasing price of food at the grocery store and cost of gasoline at the pump is giving the average consumer a considerable amount of grief and causing added worries on top of those created by a still high unemployment situation, ongoing housing crisis and anemic economy. Those aren't the factors that generally provide a warm reception to strikes, particularly when they are at grocery stores, a place all consumers in Southern California and elsewhere frequent regularly.

Related Stories

April 25, 2011: Talks Between Southern California's 'Big Three' Grocery Chains and UFCW Union Resume Tomorrow

April 21, 2011: Southern California Grocery Store Workers Vote to Authorize Strike Against 'Big Three' Chains

Talks Between Southern California's 'Big Three' Grocery Chains and UFCW Union Resume Tomorrow

Southern California Market Region:
Labor Negotiations Update

Negotiations between representatives of the seven United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union locals in Southern California and representatives of the region's "big three" grocery chains - Kroger Co.-owned Ralphs, Safeway's Vons, and Albertsons, which is owned by Supervalu, Inc. - are set to resume tomorrow, and run until Thursday, according to Michael Straeter, president of Local 1442.

Following the three days of negotiations this week, plans are for the talks to continue on the same Tuesday- through-Thursday schedule from May 2 -to- 9, Straeter said today.

Kroger Co., Safeway Stores, Inc. and Supervalu, Inc. are the top three supermarket chains (in order of how they're listed) in the U.S., based on annual sales.

Ralphs (number one), Vons and Albertsons are also the top-three food and grocery retailers in Southern California, followed by Stater Bros., which is fourth in market share.

Stater Bros. is normally part of the contract negotiations along with the "big three." However, CEO Jack Brown, who's been a leader in union-grocery labor relations in the Southern California market for decades, this year decided to have Stater Bros. negotiate with the UFCW locals on its own, rather than being a part of the four chain group. The negotiations with Stater Bros. are currently taking place.

The last union contract in Southern California was signed in 2007. That contract expired in March of this year. Since then, the union grocery clerks and the unionized chains in Southern California have been working on a day-to-day basis, under the terms of the old contract.

Last week, UFCW-member grocery clerks in Southern California voted to authorize a strike against the three supermarket chains.

No strike has yet been called.

Both parties have said they want to reach a deal and avoid a strike and walkout by workers. The talks starting tomorrow and continuing until May 9 are designed to achieve that objective.

But when it comes to labor contract negotiations, particularly in challenging times like at present, both God and the Devil are in the details for the negotiating parties.

As such, the Southern California union locals and the three grocery chains are prepared to travel a rough and long road before they get to the end and agree on a contract that can then be voted on (for ratification) by the UFCW-member grocery clerks.

See the two stories at the following links - April 21, 2011: Southern California Grocery Store Workers Vote to Authorize Strike Against 'Big Three' Chains; and Union Grocery Store Workers' Vote Could Authorize Strike Against Southern California's 'Big Three' Grocery Chains - for background information and details on the status of the negotiations.

Southern California Grocery Store Workers Vote to Authorize Strike Against 'Big Three' Chains

Southern California Market Region Report
News/Analysis/Commentary

In this story [April 21, 2011: Union Grocery Store Workers' Vote Could Authorize Strike Against Southern California's 'Big Three' Grocery Chains] published in the very early hours of the morning, we said members of seven UFCW retail grocery union locals in Southern California would vote overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a strike against the region's "big three" grocery chains - Kroger-owned Ralphs, Safeway's Vons and Albertsons, which is owned by Supervalue, Inc. - when the results of yesterday's vote were made public later today.

The results are in - and as we said would be the case, the UFCW-member grocery clerks voted by an overwhelming majority to authorize the union to call a strike if it feels its negotiations with the three supermarket chains are going nowhere, or if they become seriously bogged down.

According to representatives of the seven locals, about 90% of the UFCW members who voted yesterday, voted in favor of authorizing a strike.

There are 62,000 members of the combined seven locals. However, not all 62,000 members voted, and the UFCW officials are thus far keeping the number of members who voted yesterday under their union-label hats.

We also correctly said in our story early this morning that even though a strike would be authorized by the members, the union would not call for an employee strike/walkout of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, but instead would use the strike authorization as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the three chains. Those negotiations are scheduled to resume next week and to continue over the next three -to- four weeks, according to union representatives and the three grocery chains.

No strike/walkout has been called by the UFCW.

The union officials hope the strike authorization provides them with some added leverage in the negotiations with the three supermarket chains, who want to reduce employee health care benefits (and expenses) and gain some other savings, as we laid out in our piece this morning.

The UFCW local officials we talked to today said no strike is planned for the immediate future. They also said the vote authorizing a strike is more than mere rhetoric; that it's a tool they will use if and when they feel it's needed.

In our early morning story we reported the three grocery chains said the union's holding a strike authorization vote was premature, since the old contract expired on March 6, 2011, and negotiations have only been going on in earnest for a few weeks.

Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons reiterated that position today in a joint statement, in which they said the authorization to strike is not only premature but, in their collective opinion, is essentially a diversion.

"Getting sidetracked by these tactics will only delay our ability to reach an agreement on a fair contract for our associates, the three grocery chains said in the joint statement. "The real work toward getting a fair contract will happen at the negotiating table and we hope that's where the union leadership will focus its attention."

As of today, here's where the grocery chains, the UFCW union-member grocery clerks and the union locals stand.

The union locals can now call a strike if they desire at any point in the negotiating process.

However, most members don't want that, as it means losing their regular paychecks from the supermarket chains for however long a strike might last. in 2007, the year the contract that expired on March 6 was ratified, negotiations between the union and the grocers took about seven weeks.

If the union does strike, the chains could fight back by locking out employees, which happened in Southern California in 2003. In a lockout the grocers hire non-union workers in an attempt to keep the stores open and sales flowing. In 2003 the retailers estimated they collectively lost about $1.5 billion because of the strike by UFCW members.

The presidents of the seven UFCW local also say the don't want to call strike, at present.

Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons are less than pleased about the strike authorization. They see it as premature and as a move by the union to play hardball early on in the negotiations.

The union local presidents, on the other hand, say the grocery chains have been stalling negotiations, so they needed to put an authorization to strike in the hip pockets of their negotiation suits.

Negotiations resume next week. Plans call for three -to- four weeks of intense negotiating, according to union officials and representatives of the three grocery chains.

If there there is a strike, the losers will be the grocery chains  - lost sales and other problems - and the UFCW-member grocery store employees - lost wages, chance of losing a job, and more.

The winners: The numerous non-union food and grocery retailers in Southern California, which include the two largest retailers in the U.S. - Walmart and Target - along with Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and a number of others.

The UFCW locals in Southern California would like to unionize all of the chains listed above.

But, ironically, if the locals do call for a strike against Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, which account for about half of all food and grocery sales in Southern California, they will be handing a nice piece of new business (added sales) to the very same non-union food retailers they would like to unionize, giving grocers like Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which the UFCW is campaigning hard to unionize, a perfect argument as to why it should remain non-union.

That argument: Remaining non-union, among other advantages, allows it (and the others) to benefit from a strike against the 'big three chains, by gaining sales from an action (the strike) taken by the very union that (in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's case specifically and particularly) wants and asks consumers not to shop at its stores because they're non-union.

This "Catch 22" scenario is something both parties - the UFCW union locals and the "big three" union chains - should think seriously about when negotiations resume next week.

We will be covering the negotiations closely. Stay tuned.

Union Grocery Store Workers' Vote Could Authorize Strike Against Southern California's 'Big Three' Grocery Chains

Southern California Market Region Report
News/Analysis

Seven Southern California-based UFCW union locals, which represent about 62,000 unionized grocery store workers in a region stretching from coastal and inland Southern California to the Mexican border, and including the southern Central Valley, held a strike authorization vote yesterday, the result of which will be announced by the locals later today.

The vote involves negotiations the union is having with Southern California's "big three" unionized grocery chains -  Kroger-owned Ralphs, Vons, which is owned by Safeway Stores, Inc., and Albertsons, which is owned by Supervalu, Inc.

The three year contract between union grocery store workers and unionized grocers in Southern California expired on March 6. The workers, the UFCW union and the grocers have been working on a day-to-day basis since then.

The three supermarket chains also happen to be the three market share-leading food and grocery retailers in Southern California. Normally Stater Bros., which is the fourth-largest grocer in the region based on market share, would also be a party in the talks. But this time around Stater Bros. decided to negotiate separately with the UFCW because of the struggles it having in the market, as well as because as a locally-based regional chain it says it has unique needs and interests, compared to the three national grocery chains, which is true.

Gelsons, a small Southern California upscale grocery chain, is also negotiating on its own with the union.

In the past, the region's top four chains negotiated together with the UFCW on a new contract. Once an agreement was reached, nearly all of the smaller unionized chains in Southern California, such as Gelsons, would then adopt the contract agreed upon by the big chains and the union.

Most of the smaller chains will likely do the same this year, as only Gelsons (and Stater Bros, which is a medium-size chain with about $3 billion in annual sales), which has under a billion dollars in annual revenue, is negotiating on its own with the union.

In order for yesterday's vote to result in an authorization to strike, a two-thirds majority of the UFCW-member grocery clerks voting have to vote in the affirmative.

However, a two-thirds majority vote in favor of a strike against Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons doesn't mean a strike will happen soon - or ever. Instead, the union and its members can call for a walkout at anytime - and the UFCW officials wield considerable power regarding if a strike against the three chains occurs, and if it does, when it occurs - once the members authorize it.

We will know how they voted later today when the results are posted by the union locals.

Here's our analysis of what the results of the strike authorization vote to be announced later today will be, based on conversations we've had with UFCW members and union officials in Southern California, along with a summary of what we predict will happen based on those results, should we be correct about the outcome of yesterday's vote.

First, based on our reporting, it's our analysis the UFCW members will vote by an at least two-thirds majority, if not slightly higher, to authorize a walkout against Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons.

However, we predict the presidents of the seven Southern California UFCW union locals will not call for an immediate strike against the three chains, despite the member vote to authorize the walkout.

Instead, the UFCW officials negotiating with representatives of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons will use the threat of a walkout as a negotiating tool with the chains. Leverage.

Additionally, most of the UFCW member grocery clerks we've talked with since last week, when the strike authorization vote was announced, told us they can't afford to live on the small stipend they would receive if they were to go out on strike, particularly in the current poor economy, where everyday basics like the cost of food and gasoline are going up each week.

The UFCW locals are cognizant of this reality. In fact, one Southern California UFCW official told us, based on remaining anonymous, that if yesterday's vote results in the strike authorization, the union will not call for a walkout anytime soon but instead will use the possibility of an employee walkout as part of its negotiating tool box with the representatives of the "big three" grocery chains.

Officials at the seven Southern California-based union locals believe Ralphs, Vons and Safeway are dragging their collective heels in terms of moving the negotiations along.

In turn, all three chains have said in statements last week and this week they believe the union officials have acted prematurely in calling for yesterday's strike vote.

Such are the things labor negotiations are made of.

The last contract negotiations (for the contract agreement that expired March 6) took about seven months before an agreement was reached by the union and the chains. That contract was ratified in a vote by the UFCW local members in 2007. The contracts run for three years.

At the end of March, about three weeks after the expiration of the contract, the three chains sent a list of their key negotiating items, including desired take-backs, to the UFCW locals. Therefore, the negotiations have only been going on in a real sense for a little over two weeks.

The negotiations currently center on employee health benefits and pension issues. For example, the chains want employees to contribute more money out-of-pocket for their health benefit plans. The union objects to the proposed increase, saying many part-time employees already can't afford the contribution amounts and therefore are not participating in the employer-union health plan.

The three chains also want some reductions in the various types and amounts of hourly premium pay paid to the workers.

For example, union store clerks get extra hourly pay when they work on Sundays, after certain hours in the evening and on certain holidays. The chains say they need to get the premium pay rates better under control because the added labor costs are, among other things, making them less competitive against the growing number of major non-union grocers in Southern California, who don't generally offer premium pay.

Among these non-union chains are: Walmart, Target, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Each of these grocers has and are opening numerous new stores in Southern California, and in the process they've collectively been taking sales and market share away from the big three unionized supermarket chains, along with Stater Bros. and some of the smaller unionized chains.

We will report on the results of the strike authorization vote later today, along with offering some analysis about what the results could mean for Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons - and for the non-union grocers mentioned above.

Pro-Union Workers' Group and UFCW Union Speak Out On Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's $300 Million-Plus Loss



The billboard above, at the 405-Freeway (southbound near Century Boulevard) in Southern California, is part of the UFCW's campaign to unionize Fresh & Easy.

 News/Analysis

A group of store-level workers who've banned together to organize fellow employees and unionize Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market reacted this morning to Tesco's report yesterday that the United Kingdom-based retailer lost a whopping $307 million at its El Segundo, California-based fresh food and grocery chain in its 2010/11 fiscal year, whch ended February 26, 2011.

The Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market employee group, led primarily by workers at the Tesco-owned chain's store on Eagle Rock Boulevard in Los Angeles' Glassell Park neighborhood, said this morning in a statement released by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union that, as employees, they're "very concerned" over the $300 million-plus in losses Fresh & Easy sustained in Tesco's 2010/11 fiscal year,

As we reported yesterday, Tesco's Fresh & Easy lost about $307 million, on sales of about $818 million, in its 2010/11 fiscal year, which ended on February 26, 2011. (Note: You will see slightly different loss numbers reported in the millions, depending on the publication doing so. That's because Tesco reports its financial numbers in British pounds. Therefore, the numbers can vary slightly depending on conversion rate use and timing.)

The employee group also takes Fresh & Easy's continued poor performance directly to the corner office in El Segundo, saying: "Tesco Director and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Chief Executive Officer Tim Mason has refused to work with union and community groups to improve Fresh & Easy stores and make them more successful in their communities. Tesco's Fresh & Easy stores have suffered losses every year since the U.S. grocery chain was launched in 2007, and have never posted a profit in the U.S."

"Even after four years of losses for Fresh & Easy stores, Tesco paid Tim Mason around $7 million last year," said worker Lisa Austin. “We’re struggling to survive and make our stores a success on minimal wages and unaffordable health care, but he’s making millions while Fresh & Easy fails. It doesn’t make any sense." [Click here to read a series of stories about Mason's compensation. At the linked page you can click on the older posts/newer posts links at the bottom for additional stories on the subject.]

Austin, who's one of the leaders of the store-level employee group working with the UFCW to organize Fresh & Easy's workers, recently spoke at an April 5, 2011 rally to unionize Fresh & Easy, which we reported on in detail here: UFCW Union, Activists and Employees Hold Pro-Union Rallies at 25 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in California.

In the joint Fresh & Easy worker-UFCW statement this morning, the union's spokesman, Evan Yates, had strong words for Tesco and its 172-store Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain, saying "the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), community groups, politicians and Fresh & Easy workers have tried to work with Tesco to make Fresh & Easy a success since the company announced its entry into the U.S. grocery market. To date, Tesco has maintained its anti-union, anti-worker and anti-community stance and launched its chain of Fresh & Easy markets in 2007 as non-union stores."

Tesco's position, which it's held since the UFCW first began organizing Fresh & Easy employees in 2007, is that if enough store-level workers want to unionize, they need to hold an election supervised by the National Labor Relations board (NLRB), per current U.S. labor law.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has said if such an election were called. it would follow the law in carrying out its part of the process.

However, leaders of the employee pro-unionization group who work at the Glassell park neighborhood Fresh & Easy market in Los Angeles said on April 5 they haven't held an election at the store because they're concerned Tesco and Fresh & Easy might not play fair. However, a leader of the group also said on April 5 that they aren't sure if they currently have a majority of votes to go union at the Los Angeles store.

Members of the employee group are working with the UFCW on its "Fix Fresh & Easy" campaign, which is designed to put pressure on Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's CEO, Tim Mason, who's also Tesco's deputy CEO, and Tesco CEO Philip Clarke, in hope they'll have company representatives sit down with the employees and union representatives to discuss unionizing Fresh & Easy.

The UFCW has been trying  to arrange a formal sit-down with Tesco executives and CEO Tim Mason regarding Fresh & Easy for over three years. Such a meeting hasn't yet happened - and Tesco has made it fairly clear such a meeting won't be coming anytime soon.

Tesco's stores in the United Kingdom, where it's the leading food and grocery retailer, are unionized, as are many of its other divisions in Europe and Asia.

Another Fresh & Easy store worker, Shannon Harding, who works at the Spring Valley store in San Diego, summed up in the statement issued this morning what the workers group says it essentially wants: "Nobody expects to get rich working at a grocery store." But we still deserve decent pay, decent benefits and a real voice in turning this company around. Without those things, Fresh & Easy will never be a success."

Tesco's Fresh & Easy pays store- level workers a starting wage of $10 hour. Other store-level employees, called team leaders (there are generally two-to-four such employees per-store) receive a starting wage of $13 an hour. Assistant managers (one per-store; and not at all stores), which in addition to team leaders are management assistants employed at some of the Fresh & Easy stores, make $15 hour.

There are 20-25 workers per Fresh & Easy store. All of the employees work part-time (20 -to- about 32 hours week), except for the team leaders (some are part-time though), assistant managers and store managers, who are paid a salary.

Unlike unionized grocery store workers at chains like Safeway Stores, Kroger, Albertsons and others, who's pay raise schedule is determined by a multi-year contract agreement between the grocers, the UFCW union and its member-grocery clerks, hourly pay increases, and the amounts of any such increases, for store-level workers at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market are up to the company, as is the case at all non-union food and grocery retailers, like Walmart, Target, Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's and others.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market offers all store-level employees a medical insurance plan in which its pays 70% -to- 80% of the premium cost. The chain also offers workers a 401k plan with an employer contribution.

Union grocery chain workers in California make different hourly wages depending on their job descriptions in the stores. However, on average, a journey-level (about one year's full time experience) union chain grocery clerk - checks groceries, stock shelves, ect. - makes about $19 hour, and has a very strong employer-union health plan, which includes medical, dental and vision coverage. The workers contribute a portion of the monthly premium costs for the health plan.

Union grocery clerks also get a defined benefit pension depending on years of service, such as 10, 20, 30 years. The unionized chains contribute a significant portion of workers' pension money as part of the employee-retailer union contract agreement, along with a number of other types of benefits. They also pay monthly union dues to the UFCW.

Shannon Harding and the UFCW filed a case against Fresh & Easy with the NLRB in 2010. In June 2010 Administrative Law Judge William Kocol ruled in favor of Harding and the union and against Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market on the majority of complaints brought in the case. [See - June 20, 2010: NLRB Judge Rules Against Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Spring Valley CA Store Labor Law Violation Case.

On January 31, 2011, members of the NLRB's board voted to uphold the judge's decision in favor of Harding and the UFCW on the key complaints in the case. (See here.) According to the NLRB the case remains open, meaning a full and final decision is pending.

The Fresh & Easy employee group and the UFCW union have been ratcheting-up their efforts to organize store-level workers at the grocery chain, along with attempting to put greater pressure on Tesco and Fresh & Easy via the "Fix Fresh & Easy" public relations and advertising campaign.

So far the increased organizing, which also now includes efforts by UFCW locals in Northern California where Tesco has thus far opened eight Fresh & Easy markets and is set to open three new stores on April 27, hasn't produced the desired meeting - and based on our information is unlikely to do so anytime in the near future.

However, in light of yesterday's $300 million loss on about $818 million in annual sales - a loss that's about 40% of Fresh & Easy's annual revenues - this increased pressure, particularly from employees of the grocery chain, with the support of the union, comes at a bad time for Tesco CEO Philip Clarke, who inherited Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's problems when he took over as CEO from Terry Leahy, who's brainchild Fresh & Easy is.

Clarke is on the record as saying Tesco will break-even with its U.S. small-format, convenience-oriented Fresh & Easy chain by the end of its 2012/13 fiscal year, which is just 22 months from now, which as we said in this story - April 19, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Posts Biggest One-Year Loss Yet - $307 Million Loss on Sales of $818 Million (and have been saying for some time) - is a tall order.

Reader Resource

Readers: See our extensive three plus-year coverage and analysis of the union issue at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market at (click on) the following links: Fix Fresh and Easy, Fresh and Easy Eagle Rock Blvd. store in Los Angeles, Glassell Park Fresh and Easy, UFCW, UFCW Tesco Fresh and Easy Campaign, UFCW union, union and labor issues.]

UFCW Union, Activists and Employees Hold Pro-Union Rallies at 25 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in California

Tesco's Fresh & Easy and the UFCW Union
News/Analysis

The United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, organized labor activists, supporters and employees of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market yesterday held rallies at 25 Fresh & Easy stores in California, in a show of support for employee organizing at the 171-store Tesco-owned fresh food and grocery chain.

Yesterday was the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The rallies at the 25 Fresh & Easy stores in California were part of a national day of action in which U.S. labor unions and supporters organized a variety of different events throughout the nation. Organized labor held the day of action on the 43rd anniversary of the death of Dr. King to draw attention to trade unionism in America, particularly in light of the recent battles over collective bargaining going on in Wisconsin and Ohio between those states Governors and unionized public employees.

The UFCW and its various union locals in California deployed hundreds of activists and supporters to the 25 Fresh & Easy markets - 24 stores in Southern California and one grocery market in Northern California - yesterday afternoon, holding rallies in front of each of the stores. The pro-union activists held signs, passed out informational leaflets to shoppers and rallied the troops with speeches given by union officials local elected officials and pro-union Fresh & Easy store workers

One of the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store workers who participated in a rally was Lisa Austin, an employee of the Fresh & Easy store at 1000 W. West Covina Parkway in West Covina, California, and one of the leaders of a company-wide group of employees organizing for union representation at the grocery chain. Austin (pictured above) spoke to a crowd outside the West Covina store yesterday about the employee group's efforts to seek union representation at Fresh & Easy. (Behind Lisa Austin is Connie Leyva, president of UFCW local 1428 in Southern California. Leyva also spoke at the store event.)

Another Fresh & Easy store worker, Carlos Juarez, who works at the Fresh & Easy grocery market in Los Angeles' Glassell Park/Eagle Rock neighborhood and is another leader of the pro-union employee group, said at the rally in front of the store where he works: "We stood together for a voice on the job, and Fresh & Easy said 'No', and judges in two states and the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) have found that Fresh & Easy broke the law by illegally surveilling, threatening and interrogating workers like me who want to form a union."

What Juarez is referring to in the latter part of his statement above is a recent ruling by the NLRB's board on two labor relations cases filed against Tesco's Fresh & Easy last year by store employees and the UFCW. In the cases, Administrative Law Judges ruled in favor of the employees and the union and against Fresh & Easy on the majority of charges or findings brought against the grocery chain.

We reported on the ruling by the two judges in favor of the employees and the union in these two stories last year - March 4, 2010: Administrative Law Judge Finds Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Violated Labor Relations Act in Ex-Store Employee, UFCW Union Complaint>June 20, 2010: NLRB Judge Rules Against Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Spring Valley CA Store Labor Law Violation Case.

In the Spring Valley/San Diego store case (June 20, 2010 story linked above) the NLRB's board found on January 31, 2011 that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market "violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by promulgating and maintaining rules prohibiting employees from talking about the union and discipline, but not other subjects, while working and by implicitly inviting employees to resign because of their protected concerted activities. The finding upheld the thrust of the decision made on June 3, 2010 by Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol. You can view the board's January 31, 2011 decision here: (21‑CA‑38882, et al.; 356 NLRB No. 90).

Also on January 31 of this year the NLRB's board adopted the Administrative Law Judge's finding in the Las Vegas case (details in the March 4, 2010 story linked above) that the respondent (Fresh & Easy) "violated the NLRA by maintaining an over-broad no-distribution rule, interrogating employees and creating an impression of surveillance.

The NLRB's board also adopted the dismissal of allegations that two discharges violated the NLRA, finding that the respondent (Fresh & Easy) showed that the two employees would have been discharged for lawful reasons even if they had not engaged in protected activity. This was a ruling the judge made in favor of Fresh & Easy. The board upheld the finding.

The Board did not adopt the judge’s finding that the respondent cured its unlawful, company-wide no-distribution rule in September 2009, and therefore found that corporate-wide remedial notice-posting is necessary with respect to that violation. The judge ruled in favor of Fresh & Easy on this charge. However the NLRB's board overruled the judge in favor of the employee and the UFCW. You can view the board's January 31, 2011 decision here: (28-CA-22520, et al.; 356 NLRB No. 85).

The "voice on the job" that Juarez refers to in the first part of his statement has to do with a group of employees at the Eagle Rock/Glassell Park store who've been attempting so far without success to have a meeting with Fresh & Easy's senior human resources executive and/or CEO Tim Mason to discuss the employees' desire to be represented by the UFCW union, as we reported in a series of stories here in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

Tesco and Fresh & Easy's long-stated position is that if employees want to join the union they should call for an election as is stipulated by the National Labor Relations Act. None of the employees at any of the Fresh & Easy stores, in cooperation with the UFCW, has done so to date.

The Glassell Park employees, who at one time said they had a majority of store workers in favor of joining the union, recently said they have no current plans to call for an election at the store.

Juarez was joined by fellow Glassell Park Fresh & Easy store worker Michael Acuna, who's also a leader of the pro-union employee group, and Rabbi Jonathan Klein, who's with Southern California's Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice group. Rabbi Klein and Acuna also spoke at the rally outside the store. [The three men are pictured in the photograph above. Left-to-right: Rabbi Klein (in suit), Michael Acuna (in the Fresh & Easy shirt) and Carlos Juarez (far right, black shirt).

Explaining why he was attending the event, Rabbi Klein said: "We want Fresh & Easy to know we don’t care how big you are or how much money you have. In our state, in our country, in our community we respect the rights of workers to organize and we stand with Fresh & Easy workers who want a real voice on the job."

Yesterday's pro-union events at the 24 Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California and the Walnut Creek unit in the San Francisco Bay Area (see the list of the 25 stores at the end of this piece) is the largest single day of store-level activity the UFCW has organized at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market since the first stores were opened in November 2007, based on our coverage of the chain, which began in late 2007.

Late last year we correctly said the UFCW would be intensifying its campaign targeting Fresh & Easy beginning in early 2011, after moderating it considerably in the last half of 2010.

The union has done just that, launching its "Fix Fresh & Easy" public relations and advertising campaign in the beginning of 2011 and expanding it over the last few months, as we've report on here, along with conducting other types of actions targeting Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which is owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, the third-largest food and grocery retailer in the world and the UK's market share leader, accounting for a whopping 30% of all food and grocery sales in the nation. Tesco's stores in the UK are unionized.

Additionally, yesterday's rallies at the 25 Fresh & Easy stores marks the beginning of more intense campaigning, organizing and events to come throughout the spring and into the summer, including in Northern California where the grocer has so far this year opened seven stores.

For example, as we reported on March 25 in this story - UFCW Union Local Sets Up Picket Line at Just-Opened Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Modesto, California - Northern California local UFCW 8-Golden State has set up an informational picket line at the Fresh & Easy market in Modesto, California which opened on March 23.

Further, another Northern California local, Local 5, is conducting random informational leafleting at a few of the five Northern California Fresh & Easy stores the grocer has opened thus far this year in the San Francisco Bay Area, such as the store in Pacifica. [See - March 9, 2011: Northern California Launch: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Store in Pacifica Today.]

The increased activity by the UFCW and the group of pro-unionization Fresh & Easy store-level workers come at about the same time United Kingdom-based Tesco is preparing to report its fiscal year 2010/11 financials, including how much the global retailer lost in the fiscal year at its Fresh & Easy USA chain of 171 stores.

We say loss because Tesco has already said it estimates reporting a loss for Fresh & Easy in the $250-$259 million range for the fiscal year, roughly the same amount it lost in the previously 2009/10 fiscal year, despite having a considerable increase in sales, mostly from new stores opened, for the 2010/11 year, which ended in February.

Tesco has a new CEO, former head of European /Asia operations and information technology chief Philip Clarke, who replaced Terry Leahy, who retired last month. Fresh & Easy's CEO Tim Mason, who was also named Tesco group deputy CEO to Clarke in March, is under the gun to get the money-losing U.S. chain to break-even by the end of Tesco's 2012/13 fiscal year, which is about two years away. Based on Fresh & Easy's current performance and strategy, doing so is going to be a tough slog for Clarke, Mason and company.

The increased efforts by the union to organize store-level workers at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market won't make achieving that goal any easier for Tesco, although the El Segundo, California-based grocer's problems go far beyond a union organizing effort by a group of employees and the UFCW.

The UFCW rally outside the Fresh & Easy store at 1631 Highland Avenue in San Bernardino, California drew a large crowd of activits and supporters for union organizing at Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

The union issue is compounded by the fact that the current contract between the UFCW locals in Southern California and the regions unionized grocery chains, which include the four market share-leading grocer's in Southern California - Kroger's Ralphs, Safeway's Vons, Albertsons and Stater Bros - has expired.

The chains and their respective unionized workers are working on a day-to-day basis under the old contract. Either party has the right to terminate the day-to-day arrangement by giving the other party 72-hours notice.

As of today, no progress has been made in negotiations between the UFCW and Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, which is owned by Supervalu, Inc. Stater Bros. is negotiating with the union separately, as is local chain Gelsons.

In fact, the three chains only submitted their first proposal to the UFCW on March 29. The Southern California union locals have essentially pronounced the proposal, which includes various "givebacks" involving premium-type (holidays, Sundays, ect.) wages and benefits, dead on arrival. Already some of the unions are telling employees that a strike vote may have to be made if progress isn't made in the next couple weeks, for example.

The UFCW is under pressure as part of the contract talks because the unionized chains say they are losing market share to non-union chains like Walmart, Target, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market and Fresh & Easy, which is true. As a result, expect to see intensified organizing by the UFCW not only vis-a-vis Tesco's Fresh & Easy but also involving a couple of the other chains noted above.

One of the more aggressive UFCW union local presidents in Southern California is Connie Leyva (pictured above in front of the West Covina Fresh & Easy store and behind store employee Lisa Austin in the earlier photo), who's also the president of the California Labor Federation, the highly politically connected umbrella organization for organized labor in the Golden State.

Governor Jerry Brown is counting on the Federation's support for his budget balancing plan and on other issues, for example.

Additionally, organized labor is also a crucial supporter of Democrats in California, which hold a majority in both the State Assembly and State Senate. Assembly Speaker John Perez is a former official with the UFCW union.

Leyva attended the rally at the West Covina store yesterday and had strong words for Tesco and Fresh & Easy's senior management, saying: "When Dr. King passed away, he was standing up for striking workers in Memphis. We honor his memory today by standing with organizing workers at Fresh & Easy and saying our communities support and honor the right to organize."

For the UFCW union and the pro-union Fresh & Easy store employees however, the bottom line is that until they can hold an win an election at one of the grocer's 171 stores, the probability of becoming unionized is as close to zero as can be had. Tesco has no interest in talking with the UFCW about becoming a union shop, evidenced not only by our source information but by the fact the union has been asking its and Fresh & Easy's senior executives to do so for four years.

We don't see such an election happening at any Fresh & Easy store this year. Therefore the employees' and union's thrust will continue to be through public relations, advertising, picketing and events like the action held yesterday at the 25 stores in California. In other words, don't look for a resolution to the Fresh & Easy-union issue anytime soon.

Union activists and supporters rally outside of the Fresh & Easy store in Spring Valley/San Diego yesterday.

Below are the locations of the 25 Fresh & Easy stores where the rallies took place yesterday:

Alhambra - 2121 W. Main St.
Buena Park - 7880 Valley View St.
Burbank - 1615 W. Verdugo Ave.
Compton - 2175 W. Rosecrans Ave.
Glassell Park/Eagle Rock - 4211 Eagle Rock Blvd.
Fullerton - 1207 S Euclid
Harbor City - 26640 Western Ave, Suite E
Hollywood - 7021 Hollywood Blvd.
Lakewood - 4930 Paramount Blvd.
Lakewood - 5615 Woodruff Ave.
Manhattan Beach - 1700 Rosecrans Ave.
Northridge - 19350 Nordoff St.
Orange - 1803 E Chapman
Paramount - 15727 Downey Ave.
Pico Rivera - 8921 Washington Blvd.
Rancho Cucamonga - 8956 Foothill Blvd.
Rancho Cucamonga - 12188 Foothill Blvd.
Rancho Cucamonga - 829 W Foothill, Upland
Rialto - 2015 N Riverside Ave
San Bernardino - 1631 E Highland Ave
Spring Valley/San Diego - 96655 Campo Rd.
Van Nuys - 15230 Vanowen St.
Vista - 945 E Vista Pkwy
Walnut Creek - 1821 Ygnacio Valley Rd.
West Covina - 1000 W. West Covina Pkwy

Related Stories

[Readers: See our extensive coverage and analysis of the union issue at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market at (click on) the following links: Fix Fresh and Easy, Fresh and Easy Eagle Rock Blvd. store in Los Angeles, Glassell Park Fresh and Easy, UFCW, UFCW Tesco Fresh and Easy Campaign, UFCW union, union and labor issues.]

'The (UFCW Union's) Repairman' Visits Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Corporate Office...to Deliver A Toilet

Tesco's Fresh & Easy and the UFCW Union

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union has taken its 'Fix Fresh & Easy' media campaign directly to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate headquarters in El Segundo, California, in a surprise video featuring "The Repairman," a current and former Fresh & Easy employee and - a toilet.

In a recent story about the UFCW union's expansion of its 'Fix Fresh & Easy' media campaign, we introduced Fresh & Easy Buzz readers to "The Repairman," a union worker who's appearing on a billboard in Southern California and in ads the UFCW is running on Facebook. [Read the story at -January 31, 2011: UFCW Union Launches Outdoor Billboard and Facebook Ads as Part of its 'Fix Fresh & Easy' Media Campaign

We also noted in the January 31 story that "The Repairman" would soon be making another appearance, in a new video produced by the UFCW union.

The new video, "Fresh & Easy Flushes Money Down the Toilet," stars "The Repairman" and has a current Fresh & Easy store worker and former employee in supporting roles.

But as often happens in such surprise videos, the UFCW union's "The Repairman" ends up sharing the lead role in the brief video, which takes place at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate office in El Segundo, California, with John Stokes, who is the director of security and loss prevention (the moustached man in the white Fresh & Easy logo shirt) for Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

The toilet, which "The Repairman" and his team attempt to deliver to Tesco deputy CEO and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason, also takes on a starting role in the video. In fact, without the prop (which is a working toilet), there would be no video at all - or premise.

Without the porcelain throne "The Repairman" also wouldn't have a ready-made chair to sit on while waiting for who he thinks will be Mr. Mason - but instead ends up being head of security John Stokes, who, as you will see in the video at the top, finds no humor in the premise, or in "The Repairman's" persistence in wanting to install the new toilet.

According to a UFCW union spokesperson, "The [video] concept was a collaborative effort between [some] workers at Fresh & Easy and staff at the UFCW. They wanted to humorously convey the point that Fresh & Easy is struggling and refusing to ask for help. The goal was to get customers, other workers and Fresh & Easy to think about working cooperatively to get the company to succeed."

After watching the video, you might notice someone failed to inform Fresh & Easy's head of corporate loss prevention and security about the humorous aspect of the video. The receptionist looks like she got it though.

Related Stories

January 31, 2011: UFCW Union Launches Outdoor Billboard and Facebook Ads as Part of its 'Fix Fresh & Easy' Media Campaign

December 20, 2010 - UFCW Union Launches New 'Fix Fresh & Easy' Neighborhood Market Website and Social Media-Based Campaign

December 20, 2010: UFCW Union Launches New 'Fix Fresh & Easy' Neighborhood Market Website and Social Media-Based Campaign

December 20, 2010: Glassell Park-Los Angeles Store Workers Catalysts For New UFCW Campaign to Unionize Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

October 6, 2010: The Daily Show Catches Las Vegas-Based UFCW Union Local 711 In Labor Relations 'Catch 22'

October 5, 2010: UFCW President Joe Hansen's Chairmanship of Change to Win Adds Fire Power to Union's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Campaign

September 30, 2010: Self-Service-Only Checkout Safe at California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Thanks to Governor's Veto Pen

Also, see (click on) the following links - F-E Employees and union issue, Fresh and Easy Eagle Rock Blvd. store in Los Angeles, Glassell Park Fresh and Easy, UFCW, UFCW Tesco Fresh and Easy Campaign, UFCW union, union and labor issues - for additional related stories.

UFCW Union Launches Outdoor Billboard and Facebook Ads as Part of its 'Fix Fresh & Easy' Media Campaign

The billboard pictured above is on the 405-Freeway in Southern California.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy and the UFCW Union

The United Food & Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) has expanded its "Fix Fresh & Easy"media campaign from its initial website and social media efforts - Twitter feed, Facebook page and YouTube channel - to outdoor advertising and targeted advertisements on Facebook.

Additionally, the union has launched a new video on its YouTube channel, which is tied-in to the advertising campaign.

In a story on December 20, 2010 - UFCW Union Launches New 'Fix Fresh & Easy' Neighborhood Market Website and Social Media-Based Campaign - we reported that the UFCW union was launching its "Fix Fresh & Easy" Neighborhood Market campaign, which is a multi-media-based effort to draw attention to what the grocery clerks' union says are numerous problems at the Tesco-owned, El Segundo, California-based fresh food and grocery chain, which has had operating losses of over $500 million so far since the first Fresh & Easy markets opened in November 2007.

"Fix Fresh & Easy" is the latest effort by the UFCW to unionize store-level employees at United Kingdom-based Tesco's 156 Fresh & Easy markets in California, southern Nevada and metro Phoenix, Arizona, something the union, which represents about 1.5 million retail grocery clerks and workers in allied industries in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, has been attempting to do beginning before the first stores opened in late 2007.

It's also a new tact for the UFCW union, in that "Fix Fresh & Easy" takes a "consultative" approach, pointing out what the union and some Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store workers say are problems with how the chain is operated, then offering various solutions (fixes) to those problems, often times using employees of the chain to deliver those messages via various forms of media.

Outdoor advertising

The UFCW union has kicked-off the new outdoor advertising element of its "Fix Fresh & Easy campaign with a billboard (pictured at top), which is located on the busy 405-Freeway (southbound near Century Boulevard) in Southern California. The billboard is not only located in a spot that has some of the highest commuter traffic counts in Southern California, its also in a place that's nearby a number of Tesco's Fresh & Easy stores in the region.

The majority - 93 stores - of Tesco's 156 Fresh & Easy markets are located in Southern California. Fourteen stores are in the Bakersfield and Fresno (seven in each region) metro areas in California's Central Valley. The remaining stores are in the metro Phoenix, Arizona region - 28 units - and metro Las Vegas, Nevada, where Tesco has 21 Fresh & Easy stores.

The 405-Freeway location is the first billboard in the union's outdoor advertising campaign, and currently the only one. However, a spokesman for the UFCW union tells Fresh & Easy Buzz that additional billboards like the one pictured at top are planned for Southern California, and possibly Arizona and Nevada.

The billboard features a real union construction worker, called "The Repairman." The name plays off the "Fix Fresh & Easy" theme. The other people on the billboard with "The Repairman," wearing "Fresh & Easy Green" are Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store workers from Southern California.

The UFCW spokesman says the theme of the billboard is designed to tie-in with the union's social media-based efforts, in which it's offering ways to "Fix Fresh & Easy," the leading suggestion being for the chain to sit down with representatives of the UFCW to discuss unionizing Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store-level employees.

New video

The UFCW union has also launched a new video (see below) on YouTube, tied-in to the outdoor and Facebook advertising campaign. The less than two minute video, "Fresh & Easy Customers Speak Out," features "The Repairman." along with interviews with various Fresh & Easy store customers, discussing whether or not they will continue shopping at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in light of the unionization issue.

We asked the spokesman for the grocery clerks union to verify for Fresh & Easy Buzz that the people in the video are actual Fresh & Easy store customers. Here's what he said: "The people are real customers from [Fresh & Easy] stores across LA. They chose not to shop after being given a flyer, and then were approached and offered the opportunity to appear in the film."



Facebook ads

In addition to launching the outdoor advertising campaign with its first billboard on the 405-Freeway in Southern California, the UFCW union is also running two different ads on Facebook, as part of the popular social media site's targeted, paid advertising program.
The Facebook site ads are being run on a targeted, rotational basis to selected Facebook users, including Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market employees and customers in California, Nevada and Arizona, according to the union. (See the screenshots of the Facebook advertisements pictured above and below.) The UFCW union spokesperson says additional advertisements are being prepared to be run on Facebook as part of the campaign, adding the two current ads being started off on a "heavy" rotation," meaning they will show up frequently on the Facebook pages of the various targeted users.

More to come

The grocery clerks union is planning additional activity soon in its "Fix Fresh & Easy" media campaign, which in addition to a website, Twitter feed, Facebook page and YouTube channel, now also includes the Facebbok advertisement component and the outdoor advertising campaign.

Additionally, as we've been reporting in Fresh & Easy Buzz since 2009, the UFCW union locals in Northern California are preparing a local campaign of their own, targeted to when Tesco opens its first Fresh & Easy stores in San Jose and Danville (San Francisco Bay Area) on March 2, followed by the openings of nine other stores between March 9 and the end of April.

Although not yet announced by the grocer, two stores in San Francisco, in the Richmond and Bayview neighborhoods, are set to open in April or May, according to our sources, although those dates could change depending on if the stores are ready to open by then. [You can see the opening dates and locations of the 11 Northern California Fresh & Easy stores here.]

Fresh & Easy's response

Meanwhile, Tesco corporate director and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason has been using what you might call, borrowing from the world of diplomacy, a "soft power" approach, along with other efforts, to suggest to Fresh & Easy store employees that joining the UFCW union is not in their best interests. The program sends "Fresh & Easy Ambassadors" to the stores to talk with employees about the advantages of keeping Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market non-union. The "Ambassadors" aren't supposed to tell store workers not to organize a union, or that if they do so they will be looked on in a less than favorable light by senior management. Rather, their role is designed as a consultative or persuasive one, hence the "soft power" analogy.

Periodically CEO Mason has read reports prepared by the "Fresh & Easy Ambassadors" to corporate headquarters employees during meetings, according to sources who've been at the meetings, and has indicated he thinks the approach is working well as part of the chain's efforts to remain non-union, according to those sources.

Recent Related Stories

December 20, 2010: UFCW Union Launches New 'Fix Fresh & Easy' Neighborhood Market Website and Social Media-Based Campaign

December 20, 2010: Glassell Park-Los Angeles Store Workers Catalysts For New UFCW Campaign to Unionize Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

October 6, 2010: The Daily Show Catches Las Vegas-Based UFCW Union Local 711 In Labor Relations 'Catch 22'

October 5, 2010: UFCW President Joe Hansen's Chairmanship of Change to Win Adds Fire Power to Union's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Campaign

September 30, 2010: Self-Service-Only Checkout Safe at California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Thanks to Governor's Veto Pen

Also, see (click on) the following links - F-E Employees and union issue, Fresh and Easy Eagle Rock Blvd. store in Los Angeles, Glassell Park Fresh and Easy, UFCW, UFCW Tesco Fresh and Easy Campaign, UFCW union, union and labor issues - for additional related stories.