By Robert Brownlee
Kroger returned to the negotiating table on Sept. 27 after workers with the UFCW Local 1059 rejected a third contract earlier in the month–and authorized a strike.
Unhappy, underpaid, and overworked, workers in Local 1059 in Ohio told the Kroger-Workers’ Voice that their pay and what the company offered doesn’t match up with the company’s soaring profits. These gains for the company skyrocketed in 2021 during the pandemic to $3.5 billion in operating profit, projected to reach $4.6 billion in 2022 including a $1 billion stock buyback.
The UFCW Local 1059 has not set a date for when a strike could begin, as that’s up to the outcome of the ongoing negotiations with Kroger. The Local represents 82 stores and 12,500 workers across Ohio which also makes the vote somewhat symbolic – Kroger’s headquarters is in Cincinnati.
Officially, the third contract which Kroger offered was its “last, best and final offer.” In practice, it hasn’t gone as Kroger anticipated. Fifty-five percent of the Local’s voting workers turned down that contract on Sept. 16 and 80 percent voted to authorize a strike.
“The workers need to be offered a liveable wage to keep up with inflation,” a worker at a Columbus-area Kroger told the Voice. “We need to be able to take care of ourselves, because either we need the hours and benefits that will help us succeed not only with the company, but to be able to get ahead a little bit so we’re not struggling, or at the very least, if we’re not going to get the hours to compensate, give us a higher wage.”
Kroger said its last contract would increase the top-rate wages by $1.80/hour through its three-year life and raise starting pay to $14.25/hour. But workers were skeptical of what they called a “loophole” in the contract. Initially, Kroger would give most departments raises by one, two, or three dollars per hour, but then the rates quickly drop off after that.
One worker said they would have received a $2/hour raise, jumping to more than $15/hour, but then dropping to a 35 cent raise every year for the rest of the contract. “That simply doesn’t keep up with inflation,” the worker said. “And not all of the departments are getting the same raises.”
“From the get-go, they pay us abysmally, and considering the fine print of the contract and the pay raise itself, it’s almost as if they’re trying to hoodwink you,” another Kroger worker told the Voice. “‘Look at how you’re getting $2 more, maybe even $3!’ But then you don’t realize it’ll take you a much longer time to get that rate – and the amount they’re offering is still way below what it should be.”
Workers also voiced concerns with a new “step” system replacing the current system which schedules raises based on time spent with the company. The Columbus-area worker said the contract which they voted to reject included an initial $2 raise in the first of three steps, but moving to the second and third steps is dependent on their hours. A worker who averages 32 hours per week during a 12-month waiting period can move to step two. If they average 36 hours per week, they can move to step three.
But these steps are not concurrent. Workers could move up to step two, but then have to wait another year to move up to step three – if they can get enough hours in the first place.
“For many of us, that’s not a possibility,” the Columbus-area worker said, because Kroger works 90 percent of the time off part-time workers and our hours are cut because they don’t want to pay benefits, so many of us are probably never going to be able to reach that second step.”
Subtle changes in the second and third iterations of the contract were unpopular too, particularly changes lowering the raise rate to even less between 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. “You’d think if we voted down the first contract, they’d try to improve the second one to make it seem more enticing, but they seem to have done the opposite,” the worker said.
To add insult to injury, Kroger sent a memo to workers warning that “no one wins with a strike” as it would cost the company “loss of valuable market share.” The Columbus-area worker replied, “the corporate group is more concerned with income loss than with listening to the employees who are telling them that the contract isn’t sufficient.”
The specifics of the contract are not alone to explain the willingness of workers in Ohio to strike – it reflects larger currents in the labor force.
Strike activity in the United States in 2022 is significantly outpacing 2021 and has so far ranged from Starbucks workers to nurses in Minnesota, timber workers in Oregon and curators and conservators at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Thousands more workers across the United States could go on strike during the next few weeks in what the labor movement is calling “Striketober.”
Americans are also now approving of labor unions at 71 percent, according to Gallup, the highest recorded approval rating since 1965. Union election petitions have increased 58 percent so far in 2022 compared to last year, and the union election win total is the highest in nearly 20 years, according to the AFL-CIO.
Back at Kroger, workers say turnover at their stores is high, which makes their workload heavier, “but they keep us from getting overtime or the hours we need to get benefits or to move up to full time, simply because I don’t think Kroger wants to pay out for those,” the Columbus worker said.
That’s adding to the willingness of workers to support taking their fight to the street. “Frankly if that’s what it takes to make Kroger pay attention, then let us picket,” the worker added, “because our employees since the vote has been authorized have not been quiet about talking about it – and people are starting to take note that something is going on.”
It also didn’t help Kroger’s contract that CEO Rodney McMullen’s pay reached $20 million in 2020 and $18 million in 2021. The end game, in this part of the country, is the gap between his compensation and the company’s profits, on the one hand, and worker pay on the other to adjust back to reality.
"UFCW Local 1059 members have earned and deserve a contract that reflects their hard work as the frontline workers that ensure our community has access to the food and supplies it needs," Local 1059 Pres. Randy Quickel said in a statement. "We will do everything in our power to make that a reality.”