Dear UFCW members,
Last week, your bargaining team met with Kroger to discuss the Houston, Lake Charles Meat, and Shreveport contracts, specifically we gave Kroger 8 proposals covering the wages, hours, and benefits that we know you and your families rely on.
Unfortunately, Kroger continues to play games with your contract and your healthcare, refusing to even discuss the better wages and benefits you have earned unless you give up control over your health insurance fund and any input you have on your healthcare costs. We will continue to request bargaining dates and for Kroger to stop playing games and deliver the contracts you have earned.
In 2020, you and your co-workers worked hard and made sacrifices to keep your stores open and feed families all across your communities. Because of your hard work and sacrifices, Kroger made over $2 billion in pandemic profits. Even as the pandemic worsened, Kroger cut off your hero pay. Now Kroger has forced major changes that cut take-home pay and raise benefit costs for Houston workers and is proposing to make similar changes for Lake Charles and Shreveport workers too.
No one deserves to be treated this way, especially you or any Kroger worker who has proven how essential they are every single day. Kroger believes that these forced wage and benefit changes are no big deal, but here are the facts.
Kroger’s Forced Change: Lower Wages
Kroger has placed all Houston workers into a tiered wage system that could make it harder to earn the good wages you deserve.
Kroger’s Forced Change: Worse Hours and Staffing
Kroger wants to force changes in Houston that will reduce full-time positions, allow vendors to do your work, and cut your opportunity to earn overtime. Simply put, this means you will earn less.
Kroger’s Forced Change: Increased Healthcare Costs
Kroger’s forced change raises healthcare costs for Houston workers by moving you and your co-workers onto a more expensive company-controlled health insurance plan. As you may know, this company plan increases the cost of your premiums, prescriptions, deductibles, and co-pays, and other out-of-pocket expenses. For example, a parent with children could see their premium rise as much as 60% compared to the union health care fund. This means you are paying more for healthcare, at the same time Kroger is forcing changes that could make it harder for you to earn more.
Contract Negotiations Are About You & Your Family
As frustrating as it is to see what Kroger is doing, these contract negotiations are about you and the better life you have earned and deserve. Standing together, we can send Kroger a clear message that they must – and with $2 billion in profits, can – do better.
The bottom line is this: we are determined to negotiate a good contract that honors your sacrifices and rewards your hard work.
To help protect what you have earned and deserve, we are asking our members to join us for the next series of store actions on Tuesday, August 10 and Thursday, August 12.
Please RSVP for the Aug 10th or 12th store actions by texting ‘SAC455’ to 83071 or clicking here.
As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to us at (281) 448-5555. Thank you again for everything you do for your family and ours.
Sincerely,
Brandon Hopkins
UFCW Local 455 President
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