Texas Kroger Workers Prepare For Strike

[Omaha Steve]

http://cbs11tv.com/local/local_story_173173535.html

Jun 22, 2007 4:35 pm US/Central
Texas Kroger Workers Prepare For Strike

(AP) DALLAS Union workers at Kroger Co. stores in Dallas and Houston are gearing up for a strike, while the grocery chain took out newspaper advertisements looking to hire new employees.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union was still talking Thursday night with officials of Cincinnati-based Kroger, but no agreement was reached.

Union officials say the company's wage and health insurance offers have been unacceptable. A Kroger spokesman said the company was trying to reach a "balanced agreement."

Union members rallied Thursday at a Kroger in Houston and asked customers to avoid the chain's 110 area stores if there is a strike. They also claimed Kroger was planning to hire replacement workers, noting the Kroger newspaper ads that proclaimed, "Now Hiring at All Stores!" The ads ran Thursday.

"They're not calling them replacement workers, but that's what they are," said Sue Mann, an official in Houston's Local 455. "They've put the word out that they're going to hire at least 20 workers in every store."

Kroger spokesman Russell Richard declined to call the hires replacement workers, saying that the company was "planning for every possible contingency."


FULL story at link.

[ananda]

1. Until now..

.. I liked Kroger.

I've shopped there for years..
.. and it's close.

Bummer.

[PDittie]

2. Appears to have been averted

Leaders of the union representing 12,700 Houston-area Kroger employees announced today they have reached a tentative agreement with the company, heading off the potential for a strike.

The agreement came the day after tensions peaked, with the union rallying outside a southwest Houston Kroger store and the company launching an effort to hire new workers to ensure it could keep stores open in case of a strike.

Terms of the deal were not released, and members of the United Food and Commercial Workers must vote on the contract before it becomes official. Voting will start Saturday and continue through the middle of next week, said Sue Mann, special assistant to UFCW Local 455 President Bill Hopkins.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4913154.html

[Omaha Steve]

3. Thank you for the fast update

I hope the other regions do as well, especially California.