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.

Safeway, Kroger Co. and UFCW Union Agree to Extension in Colorado Store Worker Contract Dispute; We Suggest A 'No Loser' Policy in Negotiations

Food & Grocery Retailing and Organized Labor: News, Analysis, Commentary

Safeway Stores, Inc.'s Colorado division and the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union avoided a potential employee strike at Safeway supermarkets in the western state when the grocery chain decided to extend its just-expired union contract until May 30, giving the retailer and UFCW local 7, which represents the store workers, more time to negotiate a new contract.

Safeway operates over 100 supermarkets in the Colorado Rocky Mountain region.

Safeway Stores, Inc. issued a statement today announcing the contract extension.

Colorado Safeway store workers voted yesterday in favor of a strike but have agreed to continue to work under the old contract, which expired at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, May 9, until a new contract can be agreed upon or the May 30 contract extension deadline is reached, according to Kristine Staaf, a spokesperson for Safeway Stores.

Safeway's Colorado Rocky Mountain division isn't the first supermarket chain in the state to extend its contract with the UFCW over the weekend.

Yesterday another supermarket chain with stores in Colorado, Kroger Co.-owned King Soopers, decided to extend the union contract for its store-level employees to May 30 after being offered the opportunity to do so earlier in the week by UFCW local 7.

Safeway-Colorado and Kroger's King Soopers-Colorado had previously agreed to a mutual pact in which if employees of one chain or the other went out on strike, the other chain would then lock out its store-level workers in return. This has become a common strategy among unionized supermarket chains in the U.S. when the UFCW threatens a strike if a new contract isn't agreed upon within a certain timeline.

Such an agreement won't be needed between now and May 30 however, since employees for both chains have indicated they plan on working through contract negotiations, at least until May 30.

The contract negotiations and threat of an employee strike come at an obvious difficult time --the recession, massive unemployment, and the financial crisis -- for both the two grocery chains and their employees.

The union and its employees want a slight wage increase under the proposed new contract.

The two grocery chains want wages kept where they currently are under the new contract.

The union wants certain changes to the employee pension system, chief among them is changing the age in which store-level workers are eligible to start receiving their pensions, from the current age of 55, to age 50.

Safeway and Kroger's King Soopers want to keep the minimum retirement age right where it was in the just-expired contract -- at age 55.

Safeway Stores' and Kroger/King Soopers' Colorado divisions are the two leading supermarket chains in the the state. Albertsons, also unionized, is number three.

Fresh & Easy Buzz Analysis and Commentary

Unionized supermarket chains like these three pay store-level employees with one-year of full-time experience from about 30% to as much as 50% more per hour than what non-union grocery and mass merchandiser chains like Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Trader Joe's, Tesco's Fresh & Easy, Colorado-based Sunflower Farmers Market, Whole Foods Market and others do.

The hourly wage for a full-time journey-level retail clerk at a unionized supermarket chain in the Western U.S. is about $20 an hour. They also receive a higher hourly wage when they work on Sunday and on holidays.

The unionized supermarket chains also offer workers a defined benefit pension plan.

The non-union chains generally offer 401-k-type of plans in which the employer matches a certain percentage of a store worker's contribution.

A UFCW-affiliated union chain employee with 30 years' of full-time service can retire after such service and collect as much as $40,000 annually in pension benefits every year he or she is alive post retirement.

Additionally, the UFCW-union supermarket chain health plan is among the best of any business sector, at any level, in the United States. Compared to most health plans the unionized supermarket clerks have more choice, lower employee contributions and minimal co-payments.

There's a growing frustration among the CEO's and others at unionized supermarket chains like Safeway, Kroger, Supervalu, Inc. and others because the fastest-growing retailers of food and groceries, the ones nipping hard at their heels, are non-union.

In Colorado this challenge from non-union retailers especially includes Wal-Mart with its Supercenters, Costco with its big box stores that sell fresh foods and groceries, and Target with its discount format stores and Super Target stores, which are similar to a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

To a lessor but important extent it also includes increased competition from the non-union and fast-growing natural foods-grocery hybrid chains Sunflower Farmers Market and Natural Grocers, both which are based in Colorado.

These non-union chains, which generally pay lower hourly wages and offer less in employee benefits than do unionized Safeway and Kroger, have been and continue to open new stores in Colorado, putting pressure on the unionized chains.

The unionized chains argue that because these non-union retailers pay employees less and offer fewer benefits, it puts them at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to retail pricing. Despite that fact, Safeway and Kroger are both rather competitive with Wal-Mart and Costco on price -- and are actually lower overall than Target.

It's important to note that neither Safeway or Kroger has been or is talking about breaking the union. Nor are they complaining. But they have a valid argument, one the UFCW should take seriously we believe, about the competitive advantage afforded the non-union competitors.

Safeway Stores' and Kroger Co.'s stores in Arizona, Nevada and California aren't affected by the contract negotiations or threatened strike. The divisions in these respective Western States --the three states where Tesco's Fresh & Easy operates its 120 non-union grocery and fresh foods markets -- operate under separate contracts.

Safeway Stores, Inc. operates 500-plus supermarkets in California, Nevada and Arizona under the Safeway and Vons banners.

Kroger Co. operates about the same number of stores in the three states. It's banners in the three states are: Ralphs (Southern and Central California), Food 4 Less (Southern California, Nevada); FoodsCo (Northern California) Smith's Food & Drug (Nevada) and Fry's (Arizona).

Additionally, both Safeway and Kroger operate hundreds of additional supermarkets in other Western U.S. states, including in addition to Colorado, in Oregon, Washington State and elsewhere in the west.

The fact that non-union retailers have been gaining on unionized supermarket chains is best demonstrated by looking at the changes in the ranking of the top-five retailers of food and groceries over just the last four -to- five years.

Just four years ago Kroger Co. (unionized) was the number one retailer of food and groceries in the U.S., followed by non-union Wal-Mart at number two, Supervalu, Inc. (unionized) at number three and Safeway Stores, Inc. a (unionized) number four.

Today, non-union Wal-Mart is the number one food and grocery retailer nationally in the U.S. Kroger (unionized) is number two. Non-union Costco is number three Unionized Supervalu, Inc. is fourth and Safeway Stores, Inc. (unionized) is number five.

Non-union Wal-Mart and Costco have been the two fastest-growing chains among these top five in terms of annual sales volume.

Additionally, Aldi USA and Whole Foods Market, Inc., both multi-billion dollar a year grossing non-union chains, and both among the top-25 largest chains in the U.S., have grown faster on a percentage basis than any unionized supermarket chain in the U.S. over the last five years.

American workers are seeing wage stagnation greater than ever in recent history during this recession. In fact, such wage stagnation has been going on for at least the last five years.

And of course, most American workers just want to hold on to their jobs right now, since finding a new one at present reminds one of that old song: " (Dream) The Impossible Dream."

Such are the realities facing Safeway Stores, Inc., Kroger Co., the UFCW union and the employees of Safeway's Colorado stores and Kroger's King Soopers supermarkets this weekend.

All sides in the negotiations should be extra considerate of one another in these tough times, we suggest. Give and take must be the order of the day. It's not a time for winners and losers. The stakes are too high for all of the stakeholders involved.

And, with all due respect to the UFCW... Is this really a good time to be arguing for the retirement age for unionized supermarket clerks to be reduced from age 55 to 50? We get it -- the more folks that retire at age 50 the more new jobs open, at least theoretically. That could backfire though, actually, in the form of employers freezing openings.

It's just that the move is rather tin ear we think for the current times. Right now the vast majority of Americans in their late fifties and early sixties, including those at retirement age now, will have to postpone retirement because they can't afford it.

Therefore, along with a couple other reasons, we aren't sure arguing for unionized grocery clerks to get the same retirement benefits at age 50 that they now get when they retire at 55 if they choose to is a good move in terms of gaining public support. Not to mention getting continued support from unionized supermarket chains.

Related Stories from Fresh & Easy Buzz:

>April 13, 2009: Analysis: Major Retailers Costco, Whole Foods Market and Starbucks Propose Employee Free Choice Act 'Third Way' Compromise; What About Fresh & Easy?

>February 13, 2009: Labor & Food Retailing: Kroger Co. Chains Sign New Contract With the UFCW Union in Vegas; What Happened to the UFCW Tesco Fresh & Easy Campaign?

>November 10, 2008: Food Retailing & Organized Labor: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Gets Some Company as the UFCW Union Launches Campaign to Unionize Wakefern's PriceRight Banner

>November 4, 2008: U.S. Organized Labor, Including the UFCW Union, is Feeling Good Tonight About A President Obama and Stronger Democratic Majority in Congress

>October 28, 2008: The UFCW Union, Tesco's Fresh & Easy, U.S. Labor Relations, and Next Week's Presidential and Congressional Election

>October 2, 2008: Tesco Fresh & Easy Denies Huntington Beach Store Employees Request to Be Recognized As A Union Store; Next Step Likley to Be Open Ballot Election

>September 26, 2008: News & Analysis: Employees At Two More Fresh & Easy Grocery Stores Could Soon Request UFCW Union Recognition From Tesco's Fresh & Easy

>September 17, 2008: Store Workers at Huntington Beach Fresh & Easy Demand Union Recognition From Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

>August 27, 2008: UFCW Union Reports Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Prepared Foods Supplier to Labor Board For What it Says is Unfair Firing of Six Employees

>August 5, 2008: UNI Global Union Launches Tesco-Specific Alliance; Calls For Tesco Executives to Meet With UFCW Union Officials Over Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

>August 4, 2008: Pico Rivera, California City Council Members Boycott Fresh & Easy Store Grand Opening; Mayor Attends But Delivers Pro-UFCW Union Message to Execs

>July 30, 2008: UFCW Union Flyers On His Door Knob Cause Heat in 'The Pragmatic Chef's' Mental Kitchen; Others Wondering About the Negative Campaign As Well

>July 3, 2008: Mid-Week Fresh & Easy Roundup: Fresh & Easy Gets Caught in A Land Use Dispute; Those Near-Famous Mixed Grill Packs; More On Manhattan Beach

>July 4, 2008: Breaking News: UFCW Union Strikes Again With Anti-Tesco Fresh & Easy Brochure Drop in Neighborhood Surrounding New Manhattan Beach Store

>July 2, 2008: UFCW Union Pickets Out in Force This Morning At Manhattan Beach Fresh & Easy Store Grand Opening

>June 30, 2008: Breaking News: UFCW Union Launches Preemptive Anti-Tesco Fresh & Easy Brochure Distribution Drop on the Eve of Manhattan Beach Store Grand Opening

>June 26, 2008: Tesco 2008 AGM: Barack Obama Sends Second Letter to Tesco CEO Requesting the Company Meet With U.S. UFCW Union Leaders About Fresh & Easy

>June 22, 2008: Vocal Cast of Critics and Advocacy Groups to Attend Tesco's Annual General Meeting On Friday, June 27

>June 4, 2008: News and Analysis: UFCW Union Takes its Tesco Union Organizing Campaign Across the Pond to the United Kingdom Beginning Today

>March 26, 2008: United Food and Commercial Workers Union Begins its Spring 2008 Organizing and Communications Campaign Directed at Tesco's Fresh & Easy

>February 11, 2008: Supermarket Union President Asks Britain's Prince Andrew to Arrange A 'Sit-Down' With Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Senior Executives

[Follow Fresh & Easy Buzz around on Twitter.com at www.twitter.com/freshneasybuzz]

Pico Rivera, California City Council Members Boycott Fresh & Easy Store Grand Opening; Mayor Attends But Delivers Pro-UFCW Union Message to Execs

Every member of the Pico Rivera, California City Council, except for the city's mayor, walked away from the grand opening of a Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery store in the Southern California city last week to protest the retailer's refusal thus far to meet with officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union to discuss the potential unionization of the fast-growing non-union grocery chain, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

Pico Rivera Mayor Ron Beilke said he decided to attend the store grand opening in part to give Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market executives a message that the city is pro-union, and that he would like the retailer's executives to sit down and talk with UFCW union leaders about the unionization issue.

The names of the four Pico Rivera City Council Members who boycotted last week's Fresh & Easy store grand opening in the city are: Gracie Gallegos (Mayor Pro-Tem), Bob Archuleta, David W. Armenta and Gregory Salcido. [Click here to view photographs of the mayor and four members of the Pico Rivera City council.]

The UFCW had numerous union supporters at the Pico Rivera Fresh & Easy store grand opening last week, as they've had at other recent store grand openings. The UFCW supporters were carrying signs that read "I won't shop at Fresh & Easy," as they demonstrated out in front of the store during the grand opening celebration.

The members of the Pico Rivera City Council said they boycotted the Fresh & Easy grocery market grand opening to show support for the workers at other Southern California supermarkets like Safeway's Vons, Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, SuperValu, Inc.'s Albertsons, Stater Bros. and other grocery chains in the city and region that are UFCW union shops.

The city council members said they also wanted to send a message to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's senior executives that the city supports their sitting down at a meeting with UFCW union leaders.

According to a reliable source who neither works for the UFCW union or Tesco, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned the UFCW coordinated the boycott with the members of the Pico Rivera City Council, including the mayor's attending the store grand opening last week and delivering the pro-union message to Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market executives who were attending.

In fact, don't be surprised to see other Southern California city council's conducting similar boycott's of Fresh & Easy new store grand openings in Southern California, as requesting such activities has now become a part of the UFCW union's multi-fronted campaign to get Tesco to meet with union leaders in order to discuss the potential unionization of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store-level workers.

Tesco's position vis-a-vis the UFCW is that it has no plans to meet with the retail clerks' union's leaders to discuss the subject. Further, Tesco says the UFCW is free to organize store-level Fresh & Easy grocery store employees in accordance with U.S. federal labor laws.

The UFCW argues that it's the only labor union Tesco refuses to meet with. Tesco has some form of union affiliation in all of the countries it does business in with the exception of the USA. This includes the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe and Asia.

The UFCW has created a petition on its website, Fresh & Easy Facts.com, where union is asking those consumers who support a meeting between Tesco executives and UFCW leaders to sign to sign it, asking Tesco to agree to meet with the union. Thus far there are about 50,000 signatures on the online petition.

As we've reported in the past, presumptive Democratic party U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who the UFCW supports for President, has sent two letters to Tesco PLC CEO Sir Terry Leahy and to Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA CEO Tim Mason, asking the senior executives to meet with or send representatives to meet with UFCW union officials.

Additionally, Joseph Hanson, president of the UFCW union, gave Britain's Prince Andrew a letter addressed to Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy some time ago, asking the Prince while he was attending the Fresh & Easy store grand opening earlier this year in the low-income city of Compton, California to give the letter requesting a meeting to the Tesco CEO.

In addition to its campaign in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, which includes dropping flyers that report on past problems Tesco has had in the UK regarding food safety issues at some of its stores, picketing Fresh & Easy store grand openings, along with demonstrating at existing Fresh & Easy grocery stores, and a grass roots and media relations offensive, the UFCW union also is conducting a campaign in the United Kingdom, which we've reported on and written about here.

Despite the union's aggressive campaign, Tesco has stuck to its position, repeating it has no plans to meet with union officials, and repeating that the union is free to organize store-level Fresh & Easy workers according to U.S. labor laws.

Tesco also has not fought back in the media against the UFCW campaign, prefering to take a "rise above it-type" approach and offer only the public positions and statements described above in response to the union's demands and actions.

'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.

Glassell Park-Los Angeles Store Workers Catalysts For New UFCW Campaign to Unionize Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

Workers at the Glassell Park neighborhood Fresh & Easy store in Los Angeles, who say they have an employee-majority in favor of joining the UFCW union and becoming a union shop, speak out to fellow employees at other stores in the video above, which is part of a new multi-faceted campaign to unionize the Tesco-owned chain.

Breaking Buzz - News & Analysis

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

In July of this year we broke the news that a majority of employees who work at the Fresh & Easy store at 4211 Eagle Rock Boulevard in the Glassell Park neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles, California agreed among themselves to join the UFCW union, and formally requested recognition from executives at Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate headquarters in El Segundo, California.

Read our story here - July 24, 2010: Employees at the Glassell Park-Eagle Rock Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Los Angeles Seeking Union Recognition From Tesco

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, through the company's head of human resources, told the worker-majority at the Glassell Park store they would have to go through a federal government monitored open ballot election, which is what most non-union U.S. companies tell employees to do if they want to join a union, winning a majority of votes from all the employees, in order to be recognized by Tesco as a union shop. The Los Angeles store, like the other 154 small-format Fresh & Easy markets in California, Nevada and Arizona, employs 20-25 workers, not including the store manager.

Since we published our piece in July, employees at the store in Los Angeles, which was one of the first units in the chain to open three years ago, had been considering their next move.

A spokesperson for the Glassell Park store worker-majority recently told Fresh & Easy Buzz that although they still have a majority of store employees in favor of joining the UFCW union, they've decided for now they don't want to move for a union election for a variety of reasons.

Among the reasons the worker-majority has decided not to move for an election is the fact that as part of the election process, employers are allowed to bring in labor consultants (which unions refer to as union busters), who along with company executives can hold meetings with workers, where they can attempt to convince the employees to vote against unionization in the election prior to voting day. The union is also able to lobby the employees to vote for unionization as part of the election process, according to U.S. federal labor law.

The results of such an election - pro or con - are binding only for the one store. However, the outcome has a major influence on weather an entire chain remains non-union or becomes unionized. Therefore, the stakes of the outcome of such an election are high for all parties involved - Tesco's Fresh & Easy, the store employees and the UFCW union.

Instead of moving for a formal vote, the workers at the Eagle Rock Boulevard Fresh & Easy market in Los Angeles instead plan to try to convince the management of Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to recognize their majority desire to become members of the UFCW union using means other than an open ballot election - at least for the near-term.

Earlier today we reported on a new website and social media-based campaign launched today by the UFCW union. [See - December 20, 2010: UFCW Union Launches New 'Fix Fresh & Easy' Neighborhood Market Website and Social Media-Based Campaign

The campaign, called Fix Fresh & Easy, is in large part the result of the success the employees of the Glassell Park, Los Angeles, Fresh & Easy store have had in gaining a majority towards their goal of becoming a union grocery store.

The Fix Fresh & Easy website and campaign are also in large part the result of the decision the store workers have made to not seek a formal union/non-union election.

The store's employees and the UFCW union have decided for now that rather than moving for an open ballot election at the Glassell Park Fresh & Easy market, they will instead launch a multi-faceted campaign, building on the recent success of the Los Angeles store workers' success in gaining a majority.

The new Fix Fresh & Easy website and social media-based campaign is part of that multi-faceted organizational effort and public relations campaign.

On another website set up by the UFCW, FreshandEasyVoice.com, which is linked at the new Fix Fresh & Easy website, employees of the Glassell Park store have authored and posted an open letter to their fellow Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store employees, informing them they've gained a union majority at the Los Angeles store, and inviting them to join in the campaign to unionize, following the Eagle Rock Boulevard store employee model. You can read the open letter here.

FreshandEasyVoice.com, which is targeted to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store employees primarily, also offers additional organizational information and serves as a companion website to Fix Fresh & Easy.com, which is geared to a wider audience.

The tone of the store workers' letter strikes tones consistent with the new campaign to "Fix Fresh & Easy," in that it offers considerable positive comments about the grocery chain, suggesting that if it were unionized, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market would then be even better than it already is.

This is a new approach from the UFCW union in two ways. First, unlike its ongoing campaign over the last three years, this new, element takes a much more positive and consultative approach. It's our analysis that this is the case in part because the new focus is employee-led, building on the ability of the Glassell Park Fresh & Easy store employees gaining a majority in favor of unionization.

This employee-led element, along with the new focus on "Fixing Fresh & Easy," could mark a significant turning point for the UFCW in its three-year effort to organize employees of United Kingdom-based Tesco's 155-store fresh food and grocery chain.

The UFCW union has been criticised by a fair number of shoppers for some of its organizational tactics, like heavy store picketing, which the union doesn't plan on stopping although it's doing it much less frequently than it did in the past, suggesting Tesco is a purveyor of unsafe food, based on past cases of outdated products being discovered in its stores in the United Kingdom, and other more aggressive tactics. The UFCW has said it's had to use these tactics because Tesco has been spending tons of money and playing hardball in its fight to prevent the stores from being unionized, despite public statements from company executives saying that if the employees want a union it's up to them to vote on in.

It's too early to tell if the new focus, adding a more positive element to the traditional organizational tactics, will work. But one thing is for sure: The new developments at the end of 2010 mark the beginnings of renewed efforts by the UFCW union to organize Fresh & Easy store workers, as well as to build support for those efforts among various stakeholders, including Tesco shareholders, the media and shoppers. And as we reported earlier today, the UFCW union plans to put an added focus on organizing Fresh & Easy store employees beginning fairly early in 2011.

Stay tuned. Fresh & Easy Buzz will be covering the UFCW-Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market unionization topic and issue closely, along with offering extensive analysis, as we've been doing for three years.

Reader Resource

Click here, here and here for a selection of our past stories about the UFCW union and its campaign to unionize store-level employees at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Note: Click on the green "older posts" and "newer posts" links at the bottom of each page for additional posts.

UNI Global Union Launches Tesco-Specific Alliance; Calls For Tesco Executives to Meet With UFCW Union Officials Over Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

The Nyon, Switzerland-based UNI Global Union has launched what it's calling The UNI Tesco Global Union Alliance, which it says is designed to "develop constructive labor relations with Tesco PLC, parent company of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA, and to become a recognized and constructive social partner with Tesco to promote the well being of the company's workforce" around the world.

UNI is a global union for skills and services with 15 million members worldwide. It has about 1,000 member-unions located in countries throughout the world. Members of UNI global include the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents about 1.3 million retail supermarket clerks and workers in related positions in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

As we've reported on and written about extensively, the UFCW is conducting an aggressive multi-front campaign in the U.S. and UK designed to get Tesco senior executives to meet with union officials to discuss the issue of unionizing its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store-level workers in the U.S. states of California, Nevada and Arizona, where the retailer's current 67 Fresh and Easy small-format grocery stores are located.

According to Philip J. Jennings, General Secretary of the UNI Global Union, the UNI Tesco Global Union Alliance, which was formed on June 18, plans to grow union representation in Tesco in all of the countries it operates stores in globally. Those countries include: The United Kingdom, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and the United States (Fresh & Easy).

The UNI Global Union says it has affiliate unions (among its 1,000 members) that represent workers in "the commerce sector" an all of the above countries, with the exception of Communist controlled China, where it has a relationship with the government controlled Commercial Workers Union.

UNI Global Union-head Jennings says a key focus of the alliance is to get Tesco PLC executives to meet with officials of the U.S.-based UFCW union to discuss the unionization of the retailer's Fresh & Easy grocery stores in the Western U.S.

Jennings says a dialogue between Tesco and UFCW officials is the way to go forward, saying the UNI Tesco Global Union Alliance plans to help the UFCW break what he calls the "deadlock" between the union and Tesco.

"The UNI Tesco Global Union Alliance calls upon Tesco to enter into a dialogue with the UFCW union," which is an affiliate of the global union group, "in the United States," Jennings said in a statement on June 18 in announcing the formation of the Tesco-specific global union alliance.

Additionally, he says: "European companies should not adopt double standards on labor issues when they go overseas," referring to the fact that Tesco's European stores are unionized, while its Fresh & Easy grocery stores in the U.S. aren't.

As a part of its charter, the new Tesco-specific global union alliance says it wants to "enter into a constructive dialogue with Tesco PLC to find mutually beneficial solutions to promote the business success of the company along with the interests of its workers."

Among its chief concerns, the global union alliance says, is recognition of trade unions by Tesco in a number of the countries it does business in, including in the U.S. with Fresh & Easy.

While it seems the intent of the new UNI Tesco Global Union Alliance is to have an ongoing dialogue with Tesco on a global basis, its goal of increasing union membership within Tesco divisions throughout the world, especially in the U.S., could be a non-starter as far as Tesco is concerned.

Regarding its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA division, which is currently Tesco's fastest-growing globally in terms of the number of new stores being opened, as we've reported, the retailer maintains its ongoing position that it sees no need or has no desire to meet with officials of the UFCW union to discuss unionization issues.

Further, Tesco PLC CEO Terry Leahy and Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA CEO Tim Mason, have both said on more than one occasion the company's position is that the UFCW is free to organize Fresh & Easy store-level employees in California, Nevada and Arizona in accordance with U.S. federal labor laws, and that it is the workers' choice as to whether or not they want to join the union via a secret ballot election.

Tesco has been firm on this position. Therefore, since one of the primary focuses of the UNI Tesco Global Union Alliance is to get Tesco officials to meet with UFCW leaders, which also is the purpose of the extensive UFCW union's campaign, and Tesco's position remains unchanged in terms of saying it sees no need or purpose of such a meeting, we see essentially a stalemate in terms of much progress being made between the global union alliance and Tesco on a variety of issues.

Additionally, although about 1,000 global unions are members of UNI Global, each has its own priorities and focuses. As we know from alliances such as the United Nations and the European Union, reaching consensus on a global basis isn't the easiest thing to do for any organization.

Therefore, we will watch closely to see if the larger, global desires (especially as it pertains to Europe) of the alliance's relations with Tesco, combined with the UFCW union's more immediate goals vis-a-vis Tesco's Fresh & Easy in the U.S., result in more cooperation between the union affiliation, end up resulting in a competitive position, or merely are rendered not all that affective because of the difficulty of balancing global union policies with more immediate local union priorities.

The formation of the UNI Tesco Global Union Alliance, and its support of a meeting between UFCW officials and Tesco executives does however add an additional element to the UFCW's Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market campaign.

As a result of this continuing pressure on Tesco's Fresh & Easy, which is struggling in a number of ways without the union issue, Tesco could decide to sit down with the union leaders for a meeting in order to take some of the heat off. This could be especially true if the UFCW and its union coalition partners are able to garner significant consumer support for the issue, which has yet to happen in our analysis.

After all, major U.S. food and grocery retailers like Wal-Mart, Inc., Whole Foods Market, Inc., and Trader Joe's have been able to prevent unionization of their respective chains by the UFCW for decades, with no sign of that situation changing any time soon.

Additionally, there are a number of fast growing chains such as the natural foods retailers Sprouts Farmers Market, Sunflower Farmers Market and Henry's Farmers Market, all which are based in the U.S. West like Tesco's Fresh & Easy is, that are non-union.

These two combined facts allow Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to point out it's far from the only and far from the largest U.S. grocery chain to be non-union. Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's for example all have far more stores and do far more in annual sales currently than Fresh & Easy does.

Tesco is the world's third largest retailer after France's Carrefour and Wal-Mart, Inc. Therefore, like Wal-Mart, despite the size of its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA at present, it's a global giant and therefore will continue to be a focus of labor unions, especially the UFCW in the U.S. That much we can guarantee.

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

News/Analysis/Commentary

Tesco, the owner of 175-store El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, is launching what CEO Philip Clarke calls a new "Vision and Strategy" for the global retailing chain, which has operations in 14 countries and is the third-largest retailer in the world, based on annual sales. (See the story below on the blog or click here to read it.)

But in California (where Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is headquartered), Nevada and Arizona where the chain's175 stores are, the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union and a group of Fresh & Easy store-level employees are continuing a strategy started last year.

Dueling strategies

The strategy, which is designed to help the workers and UFCW unionize the Tesco-owned grocery chain, is called "Fix Fresh & Easy, which is a multi-media - advertising, public relations and social media - focused campaign designed to draw attention to Tesco's financial struggle with its U.S fresh food and grocery chain and to offer to "assist" the retailer in the struggle if it will sit down with workers and union representatives and talk about unionizing Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

Tesco reported a $300 million loss for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in April, for its 2010/11 fiscal year, which ended February 26, 2011, on sales of about $818 million.

Tesco's store-level employees in the United Kingdom, where it's the largest food, grocery and general merchandise retailer with an about 30% national food and grocery sales market share, are unionized.

The "Fix Fresh & Easy" campaign's latest just-out media effort is a brief (2.40 minute) video featuring a number of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market employees talking about why the work for the Tesco-owned chain and why they want to be affiliated with the UFCW union. [You can view the video, "Fresh & Easy Employees Speak Out," here.]

All but one of the Fresh & Easy employees featured in the video work in the grocer's stores and at its fresh foods' kitchen, which is located at its distribution center complex in Riverside County, (Southern) California, according to the producer of the video and a representative of the employee group. The other employee in the video works at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate headquarters office in El Segundo, (Southern), California.

The pro-unionization employee group, in partnership with the UFCW union, has been kicking-up its activities anotch or two vis-a-vis Fresh & Easy over the last couple months with its efforts.

Most recently, the Fresh & Easy worker group spoke out about Tesco's $300-million loss with Fresh & Easy for the 2010/11 fiscal year, as we reported and detailed on April 20: Pro-Union Workers' Group and UFCW Union Speak Out On Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's $300 Million-Plus Loss.

A couple weeks earlier, in early April 2011, the UFCW union and the Fresh & Easy employee group, along with other supporters, held pro-union rallies at 25 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store across California, as we reported and wrote about here - UFCW Union, Activists and Employees Hold Pro-Union Rallies at 25 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in California.

The employee group has asked for meetings with the appropriate senior executives at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in order to discuss with them why they want a union at the Tesco-owned chain.

Thus far no such meetings between the employees and any senior executives have been granted by Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason.

The CEO's of Tesco and its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market have said since the UFCW union started organizing at the first batch of Fresh & Easy stores in late 2007 that it's up to the workers if they want a union, saying that if they do then they can call an election as detailed under National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules and U.S. labor laws.

The pro-unionizaton employee group, who's leaders work at the Fresh & Easy grocery market on Eagle Rock Boulevard in Los Angeles' Glassell Park neighborhood, haven't called for an election at the store - and they tell us they don't plan to do so anytime in the near future. The reason: They say they feel Fresh & Easy's management will spend large sums of money and do whatever it takes legally to prevent a majority vote at the store for unionization.

"We have many concerns about our health and safety at work, how the company has treated us when we've tried to unionize and the company's struggles to succeed in America," the three leaders of the pro-unionization employee group - Michael Acuna, Carlos Juares and Lisa Austin - told us in an e-mail reply.

"All we are asking for is a fair chance for the workers at Fresh & Easy to create a better place to work and to make this company successful. This company [Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market] is losing money hand over fist and will continue to until they work with us workers, the community and their customers to succeed in a uniquely America market. We feel that this company could be a great place to work and so we want them to stick around and succeed for future generations," Acuna, Juares and Austin said.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has said in a number of public statements that if such an election were called, it would follow NLRB guidelines.

But it's also highly unlikely, based on our research and reporting, that at present a majority of the employees at the Glassell Park Fresh & Easy store would vote in favor of unionization if an election were held today. A couple of the pro-union employee group leaders said as much at the April rallies noted above.

Some Fresh & Easy store employees, in concert with the UFCW union, have filed cases against the grocery chain with the NLRB. We've covered those cases closely. You can read that coverage and analysis here.

Stakeholders: Execs & employees

Fresh & Easy's senior management team and the Fresh & Easy employees - both those who are pro-union and those who ether don't care one way or another or don't want a union, which based on our research currently comprises the majority of Fresh & Easy workers - have different objectives to achieve in their respective jobs. But the company and the employees are directly linked economically.

If you open the hood of the car (in this case Fresh & Easy is the car) and look real close inside, as American billionaire and former (early 1990's) candidate for President Ross Perot used to like to say, the two stakeholder groups have a directly related common interest - economics - in the form of jobs, for both the Fresh & Easy executives and the rank-and-file employees.

For example, if Tesco closes up shop with its Fresh & Easy chain because it can't turn a profit, the employees lose because they are out of jobs. And very few of them will be able to find jobs with unionized grocery chains like Kroger and Safeway in the current sour economy, and probably not even when it improves because these chains aren't doing much new hiring.

Pulling the Fresh & Easy plug for Tesco would obviously be a huge loss for the United Kingdom-based retailer - not just of money (around $1.2 billion if it pulled the plug today, based on our estimates) but also of prestige, as well as pride.

Not succeeding in America after the way Tesco talked about how it would "revolutionize" grocery shopping inth U.S with Fresh & Easy and the like would and should be a monumental embarrassment for Terry Leahy, Tim Mason (and now Philip Clarke) and the other Tesco executives in charge of the venture if the grocery chain fails.

Stakeholders: The union

The UFCW is a bit more interesting case in terms of its place among the three stakeholders - Tesco, the employees and the union - in a strategic win-lose scenario analysis.

The union's big win will be if Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market becomes a union grocer. That means more members and increased revenue in the form of union dues for the UFCW.

Those Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market employees who want union representation would share in this win with the UFCW.

A unionized Fresh & Easy also means one of the faster-growing chains in California, Nevada and Arizona in terms of new store growth would jump from the non-union camp - which includes key chains  in the three states  like Kroger's Ralphs, Fry's and Smiths; Safeway Stores, Albertsons, Stater Bros., Save Mart, Raley's and others - and part company from the non-union chain camp - which includes key players in the three states like Walmart, Target, Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's, Sprouts Farmer Market, Sunflower Farmers Market and a number of others.

But unlike Tesco and the employees of Fresh & Easy, the UFCW also gets a win if Tesco pulls the plug on its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain, and ceases doing business in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Why: Because although Tesco is losing semi-truck trailers' worth of money with Fresh & Easy, it, like all the other non-union food and grocery retailers, is taking business from the union chains like Kroger and Safeway, as well as putting price-pressure on the chains because Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Walmart, Trader Joe's and and most of the other non-union chains have forced the union grocers to lower prices in order to compete.

Therefore, from a stakeholder strategic analysis perspective, it's better for the UFCW to have Tesco's Fresh & Easy gone than it is to have it remain and continue to be non-union, even though the union's bigger goal is to have it as a unionized grocery chain, like those noted above.

The elimination of one or more non-union competitors is a plus for the union chains, obviously. Less competition and price-pressure, although Kroger, Safeway and the other unionized grocers would rather it be Walmart, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods or Target most likely - all bigger threats than Tesco's Fresh & Easy is at this stage of the game.

A close look under the "hood"

But as of today, we don't see Tesco's Fresh  Easy becoming a union grocery chain anytime in the foreseeable future.

We do see, in our analysis, an about 50% chance Tesco CEO Philip Clarke will pull the plug on Fresh & Easy before the end of Tesco's 2012/13 fiscal year, which comes to a close February 2013.

Clarke and Tesco have said that's when it will break-even with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. And if Tesco doesn't break-even or come very close (in the $50-$75 million loss range) to breaking-even with Fresh & Easy by then, we suggest there's a 90% chance it will fold up shop in America come early 2013 or shorly before then.

One constant with successful grocery chains tends to be the key stakeholders, particularly management and employees, not only are on the same team but share pretty much the same overall strategies. When that is the case - think non-union Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market, for example - external stakeholders like labor unions and others tend to have little or no influence in the game.

The jury is still out on what influence the UFCW union will have at Tesco's Fresh & Easy. But if you compare the management/labor and union organizing climate that exists at Fresh & Easy with what's going on (or not going on) at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, where the union has made virtually no in roads to date despite decades of trying and where their are no organized pro-unionization employee groups to speak of, it's fair to ask if one of Tesco's major problems with Fresh & Easy might be found in the way senior management has structured the chain's human resource and organizational culture and management.

The CEO's of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market spend little time concerning themselves with unionization issues. Both chains, like Tesco's Fresh & Easy, want to and strive to remain non-union. But for over three years Tim Mason, the CEO of Fresh & Easy, has spent a good deal of his time dealing with the question and issue of remaining non-union or becoming a union chain.

Beyond whatever side a person takes on the union/non-union grocery chain issue at Tesco's Fresh & Easy, it's worth taking a deeper analytical look at what, besides the fact the UFCW wants to unionize the chain and a group of employees wants union representation, might possibly be more fundamental reasons - taking a close look under Fresh & Easy's "hood" - for why Tesco finds itself the main target among all the non-union chains in the Western U.S. The close look should be taken at both Fresh & Easy's senior management - is it doing all it can from a management/labor relations and policy perspective? - and the UFCW union - would it prefer a failed Fresh & Easy to a non-union one?

Reader Resource

[Read our extensive coverage and analysis since 2008 about Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the UFCW union and related management-labor topics and issues at the following links: UFCW union UFCW, Fix Fresh and Easy, food retailing and organized labor, Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market, labor relations, National Labor Relations Act, Tesco plc.]

UFCW Union Flyers On His Door Knob Cause Heat in 'The Pragmatic Chef's' Mental Kitchen; Others Wondering About the Negative Campaign As Well

Blogger the 'pragmatic chef' arrived home last night to find a couple of the United Food and Commercial Workers union's (UFCW) "Fresh & Easy Facts" and "Don't Be Fooled By Fresh & Easy" anti-Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market flyers on his front door knob.

As we've reported in Fresh & Easy Buzz, the UFCW is doing flyer drops in neighborhoods like 'the pragmatic chef's' where Tesco is getting ready to open new Fresh & Easy small-format combination basic grocery and fresh foods markets. Tesco is doing lots of new store openings at present--it's opening about 30 new Fresh & Easy grocery stores in the next 90 days.

Although he says he is a longtime union man, the pragmatic chef says finding the UFCW's flyers--and then reading them--created a little heat in his mental kitchen, leading him to rant about it today in his blog.

Read 'the pragmatic chef's' take on the UFCW flyers and what he thinks about the content here.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA is a non-union food and grocery retailing chain, unlike Tesco in the United Kingdom where the company is based, which is union- affiliated.

The major chain grocers--Safeway Stores (Vons banner), Kroger Co. (Ralphs supermarkets), SuperValu (Albertsons), Bashas and others, including most regional chains and larger independent grocers--in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona where Tesco's Fresh & Easy grocery stores are located are UFCW-represented union shops.

Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Markets, Wal-Mart, Costco and a few others in these three states are, like Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, non-union shops.

The UFCW is conducting a grass roots and media campaign both in the Western U.S. states of California, Nevada and Arizona, as well as in Tesco's home country the United Kingdom where the international retailer has its headquarters, which is designed to get Tesco executives to meet with union leaders to discuss unionizing Fresh & Easy store-level employees.

Thus far Tesco has declined to meet with the UFCW union's leaders, saying its position is that the UFCW is free to organize the Fresh & Easy store workers within the guidelines of U.S. labor laws, adding that it is up to the store employees if they choose to join the union.

We've suggested recently in a couple of stories in the blog (see links at bottom) that the UFCW might want to take a page from Barack Obama (who has pledged to run a positive campaign for President against Republican John McCain), the candidate it's supporting for U.S. President, and rather than using the negative tactics it is in the anti-Tesco Fresh & Easy Flyers, focus more on the positive features, of which there are many, that Fresh & Easy store-level workers could gain from affiliating with the UFCW.

We suggested this because we have heard from Fresh & Easy store employers, consumers and others that they, like the Pragmatic Chef, find the negative UFCW campaign repugnant.

In fact, we've even talked to executives of two unionized supermarket chains who told Fresh & Easy Buzz they don't like the negative food safety focus of the UFCW flyers, telling us they fear that message could potentially cause erosion on the part of some consumers in the retail supermarket industry's food safety record and abilities.

Both industry executives, who work for supermarket chains that have UFCW unionized store-level workers, also told us they didn't think the union's flyer campaign was very successful to date in getting Tesco to the table for a meeting, which is the UFCW's stated goal of its overall campaign.

Related Posts in Fresh & Easy Buzz:

June 30, 2008: Breaking News: UFCW Union Launches Preemptive Anti-Tesco Fresh & Easy Brochure Distribution Drop on the Eve of Manhattan Beach Store Grand Opening

July 4, 2008: Breaking News: UFCW Union Strikes Again With Anti-Tesco Fresh & Easy Brochure Drop in Neighborhood Surrounding New Manhattan Beach Store

July 2, 2008: UFCW Union Pickets Out in Force This Morning At Manhattan Beach Fresh & Easy Store Grand Opening

June 26, 2008: Tesco 2008 AGM: Barack Obama Sends Second Letter to Tesco CEO Requesting the Company Meet With U.S. UFCW Union Leaders About Fresh & Easy

July 3, 2008: Mid-Week Fresh & Easy Roundup: Fresh & Easy Gets Caught in A Land Use Dispute; Those Near-Famous Mixed Grill Packs; More On Manhattan Beach

March 26, 2008: United Food and Commercial Workers Union Begins its Spring 2008 Organizing and Communications Campaign Directed at Tesco's Fresh & Easy

July 16, 2008: Fresh Feature: A Former NBA All-Star Who Wants to Become Mayor, A Trade Union, And A Future Tesco Fresh & Easy Grocery Store In Sacramento, California

February 11, 2008: Supermarket Union President Asks Britain's Prince Andrew to Arrange A 'Sit-Down' With Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Senior Executives

June 4, 2008: News and Analysis: UFCW Union Takes its Tesco Union Organizing Campaign Across the Pond to the United Kingdom Beginning Today

December 30, 2007: UFCW Union to Organize Fresh & Easy Clerks in 2008

UFCW Union Local Sets Up Picket Line at Just-Opened Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Modesto, California

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union's UFCW 8-Golden State local, which represents unionized grocery store workers in parts of Northern California and in the Central Valley, today established an informational picket line at the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store in the Oakmore Plaza shopping center at 1717 Oakdale Road in Modesto, California, pictured below on opening day, Wednesday, March 23. [See - March 23, 2011: Tesco Opens First Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in California's Northern Central Valley Today - in Modesto; and March 19, 2011: Preview: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Headed to Save Mart Supermarket's Hometown of Modesto.]

The picket line is and will be in front of the store, near the intersection of Oakdale Road and East Briggsmore Avenue, according to Jacques Loveall, the President of UFCW 8-Golden State.

A Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent visited the store today and talked with the UFCW union picketers who were out front. They told our correspondent they will be at the store this weekend, when the Tesco owned non-union grocer continues its grand opening at the first Fresh & Easy market in Modesto.

Among the special activities planned at the Oakdale Road Fresh & Easy store this weekend include: food sampling, music, giveaways, and balloon artists and face painting for the kids. El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has been offering these activities at the seven fresh food and grocery markets it's opened so far this year in Northern California.

The informational picket line at the Modesto store is a continuation of what UFCW 8-Golden State has been doing at selected Fresh & Easy stores in the Fresno and Bakersfield metro regions in the Central Valley. Members of the local have been staffing the picket lines at many of the 14 stores in the two metro areas (seven stores in each respective region) on a regular basis since the first units were opened in Bakersfield an Fresno. [For example, see - January 14, 2010: UFCW Union Launches Informal Boycott of Fresno CA Fresh & Easy Stores Today; One Day After the Stores Open.]

UFCW 8-Golden State doesn't represent unionized grocery store employees in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the majority of the seven Fresh & Easy stores opened thus far are located.

Union grocery store workers in the Bay Area region are represented by UFCW Local 5, which has had informational picketers at some of the Bay Area stores but not at every store every day. [For example, see - March 9, 2011: Northern California Launch: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Store in Pacifica Today. However, Local 5 is gearing up for a major effort targeting Fresh & Easy store workers in the Bay Area, according to our sources.

We first reported in 2010 that this would occur when the first Fresh & Easy markets opened in Northern California in 2011.

We also reported last year that once Fresh & Easy opened its first store in Modesto, which is the grocer's first unit in the Northern Central Valley, UFCW 8-Golden State would establish an informational picket line at the store right away. The Modesto store opened on Wednesday. The union local established its informational picket line today, two days later.

The UFCW union has been trying to organize Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store-level workers since the first stores were opened in November 2007.

This year is a big one for the UFCW union and unionized grocers in California: The union's contracts in both Southern and Northern California expire in 2011.

Contract negotiations have already started between the UFCW locals in Southern California and the region's top-four unionized chains - Kroger-owned Ralphs, Safeway's Vons, Albertsons and Stater Bros. -where the current contract now has expired.

Later this year the Northern California union locals will begin contract negotiations with the region's "big three" unionized chains: Safeway Stores, Save Mart Supermarkets and Raley's.

The way the negotiations work is that once contract agreements are reached between the union and the major chains listed above, the state's other smaller, unionized chains and independents adopt essentially the same contract.

Although the current union-retailer contact in Southern California has already expired, the UFCW and the region's "big four" chains agreed earlier this month to continue working under the existing contract until the end of this month, as they continue negotiations. At the end of March, if the union and the four grocery chains don't reach agreement on a new contract - which seems likely will be the case - the two parties could extend the period in which employees would continue to work under the terms of the old contract. Or, the UFCW and its members could decide to strike, which neither party at present wants to see happen, according to both UFCW representatives and sources we've recently talked to at the chains.

The market share-leading grocers in Modesto are union. For example, the two leading food retailers in Modesto, Save Mart Supermarkets, which is headquartered in the city of 205,000, and Raley's, which is based in nearby West Sacramento, are both unionized and UFCW affiliated.

Save Mart has seven stores in its hometown of Modesto - five Save Mart banner supermarkets, one Food Maxx discount warehouse store and a Maxx Value Foods discount supermarket. Raley's has four union markets in the city.

Both Save Mart and Raley's have union supermarkets located about a half mile from the Fresh & Easy store at 1717 Oakdale Road, where the UFCW local has set up the picket line.

Another Modesto-based chain, 8-store Cost Less Foods, is also union. Cost Less has three stores in Modesto. Safeway, which has just one supermarket in Modesto, is also union.

The seven Save Mart, four Raley's, three Cost Less stores and Safeway store represent about 55 60% of total food and grocery sales in Modesto, according to our research.

The major non-union food and grocery stores in Modesto are: Walmart (a supercenter and a discount format store), Trader Joe's (one unit), Winco Foods (one store), Grocery Outlet (one store) and the Fresh & Easy market at 1717 Oakdale Road. There are also a number of unionized and non-unionized independents in Modesto.

The reactions by shoppers to the UFCW union's pickets at the Fresno and Bakersfield stores have been a mixed bag. Some consumers have stopped shopping at the stores at the urging of the union representatives. But, based on our multi-year research and reporting, the picketing hasn't been a key deciding factor regarding why consumers have chosen or not chosen to shop at the Fresh & Easy stores in the two Central Valley regions. What we've found instead is that in making their decisions to shop at Fresh & Easy in the regions, basic criteria - service, price, selection - are at the top of the list, while the union issue is either far down in the decision-making process or not on shoppers the criteria list at all.

Save Mart Supermarkets is headquartered in Modesto and the chain's majority owner, chairman and CEO, Bob Piccinnini, lives in the city, where the grocer is one of the city's major employers and leading contributor of money and other efforts to the community - along with the fact Save Mart is the second-largest chain in Northern California and one of the "big three" the union has to negotiate with this year - there's a significant amount of pressure on UFCW 8-Golden State to keep pressure on non-union Fresh & Easy, which has three other stores planned in Modesto and next door Ceres.

Just like he said back when the Fresh & Easy stores opened in Fresno and Bakersfield, UFCW 8 Golden State President Loveall says the union local is asking the public not to shop at Fresh & Easy and to shop instead at unionized grocery stores in Modesto, such as those operated by Save Mart, Raley’s, Safeway, Food Maxx, Maxx Value, Cost Less and Rite Aid.

Further, as he said when Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy opened in Bakersfield and Fresno, Laveall has strong words about the chain, saying: "Tesco, which is 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 UK is coming to our country thinking they can take advantage of American workers on our own turf. We will not allow that to happen."

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has created about 2,800 jobs in its 122 California stores since November 2007, including about 162 positions at the seven stores it's opened in Northern California so far. Fresh & Easy has also created additional new jobs at its corporate headquarters in El Segundo, California and at its distribution center campus in Riverside County.

Tesco currently operates 171 Fresh & Easy stores in California, Nevada and Arizona. Each Fresh & Easy store employs 20-25 workers. All the store-level employees are part-time, accept for the store manager and in some cases the store team leads (like an assistant manager). Starting pay for non management employees at the stores is $10 hour. Tesco's Fresh & Easy pays 80% of the medical insurance premiums for all store-level employees who work 20 hours or more a week. Most workers work 20-32 hours a week, depending on the store location. The retailer also offers a 401k retirement program with a company match.

As we reported yesterday, Colorado and Arizona-based Sunflower Farmers Market, which like Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is non-union, is opening a store in Modesto in October of this year. [See - March 24, 2011: Sunflower Farmers Market is Headed to Modesto as Part of Northern California Push.]

Sunflower, which operates 33 stores in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Nevada, plans to open its first store in California in May. That store will be in Roseville, near Sacramento. We expect the UFCW union to add Sunflower Farmers Market to its list of non-union stores it wants to unionize.

But so far the UFCW has had no success unionizing Walmart, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Target, Sprouts Farmers Market and Tesco's Fresh & Easy, all which are non-union and all which are among the fastest growing food retailers in California.

And, you can bank on this: These fast-growing non-union food retailers and the pressures they're putting on the union supermarkets is a topic at the top of the "big four" chains' discussion list in the contract negotiations currently going on between the UFCW union locals and the grocers in Southern California, as it will be later this year when contract negotiations begin in Northern California between the UFCW and the region's "big three" unionized chains.

Related Stories

>Read our extensive reporting and analysis on the UFCW union-Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market topic and issue at the following (click on) links - UFCW, UFCW Tesco Fresh and Easy Campaign, UFCW union, union food retailing USA.

>Click on the following links - Fresh and Easy Modesto CA, Fresh and Easy Northern California, Modesto California market, Northern California Market Region, Raleys, Save Mart, Tesco's Fresh and Easy in Norcal 2011 - for related stories about Fresh & Easy in Northern California.