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UFCW Local 204 Fights Kroger Health Care Proposal
July 31, 2006 · Triangle Business Journal
Unionized workers at as many as 19 North Carolina Kroger stores -- including several in the Triangle -- were expected to vote Monday and Tuesday on a company proposal that union officials contend would make health care coverage unaffordable.
Negotiations between the company and its unionized workers -- who are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 204 -- are expected to continue after the vote, but union officials say a strike could become a reality as early as mid-August if the plan is rejected and a compromise is not reached.
"We want to make sure they know we're prepared [to strike,]" says Chris Foster, assistant to the director of collective bargaining for UFCW. "Right now, the way things look at the bargaining table, they don't seem to be taking us very seriously."
A strike would affect as many as 1,000 workers at 19 North Carolina stores from Greenville to Raleigh, Foster says.
The debate stems from a corporate proposal that would reduce the amount of money in Kroger's company-wide health care fund and increase the amount the employees pay for their health care coverage, according to a written statement released by the union Monday.
Foster says accompanying wage increases proposed by the company are insufficient when compared to the potential increase in health care costs.
Telephone calls seeking comment from Kroger officials were not immediately returned.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kroger is one of the nation's largest grocery retailers, with fiscal 2005 sales of more than $60 billion.