From left, Chris Gray, Anna Putman, Inez Fishbaugh, Teri Briggs and Jenni Calo strike outside the Hollywood Fred Meyer store where they all work in Portland, Oregon, Aug. 28, 2024. Employees at 28 Fred Meyers stores across Portland began a strike at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning in protest of unfair labor practices.
Anna Lück / OPB
Workers gather to picket outside the Hollywood Fred Meyer store in Portland.
Anna Lück / OPB
Picketers hold signs reading “Strike! Strike! Strike!” outside the Hollywood Fred Meyer store in Portland, Oregon, Aug. 28, 2024. The Fred Meyers employees who went on strike at 6 a.m. Wednesday are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
Anna Lück / OPB
Malcolm Truss, 3, holds a sign after participating in the Hollywood Fred Meyer picket line on August 28, 2024. His mother, Xochitl Truss, who was also present, is an employee of Portland Public Schools and says, “We had our strike last year. This was on our way home today – we need to support each other.”
Anna Lück / OPB
From left: Adam Case, David Robertson and Dallas Vanek, all employees at the Hollywood Fred Meyer location, hold up strike signs, August 28, 2024.
Anna Lück / OPB
A fact sheet about the rights of striking employees and flyers to be distributed to passersby lie on the sidewalk in front of the Hollywood Fred Meyer location on the first day of an employee strike on August 28, 2024.
Anna Lück / OPB
Wanda Coleman, cashier at Hollywood Fred Meyers, poses with her picket sign, August 28, 2024.
Anna Lück / OPB
A sign reading “Hiring Temporary Workers” outside the Hollywood Fred Meyers in Portland, Oregon, with pickets in the background, August 28, 2024. Signs on the store doors indicated that they would be hiring temporary workers “as a precautionary measure due to a possible labor dispute with the local UFCW.”
Anna Lück / OPB
A sign in the entrance area of Hollywood Fred Meyers reading “Hollywood West (loves) our employees,” Portland, Oregon, August 28, 2024.
Anna Lück / OPB
Fred Meyers employees cheer and clench their fists on the picket line as a car decides not to enter the store and turns around, Portland, Oregon, August 28, 2024. Picketers chanted “Union, turn around!” as cars pulled into the parking lot of the Hollywood location.
Anna Lück / OPB
From left: Fred Meyer employees Aaron Bendik and Trenton Respress hold strike signs outside the Hollywood location where they both work, Aug. 28, 2024. The existing contract for grocery and meat workers expired Aug. 10, and UFCW Local 555 says Fred Meyer is withholding information needed to negotiate a new contract.
Anna Lück / OPB
About three dozen workers joined the picket line outside Fred Meyer in Portland’s Hollywood district on Wednesday morning.
Many gathered at the entrance to the parking lot just off Northeast Broadway and 30th Avenue, holding signs that read “strike” and urging potential customers who drove up to “turn around” and shop elsewhere.
Representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 555 say the strike is a necessary tactic to pressure Fred Meyer’s parent company, Kroger, into a fair deal. Strikes against unfair labor practices are a common tool used by unions.
In total, workers are striking in 28 stores in the Portland metropolitan area. About 4,500 Fred Meyer workers in the metropolitan area are represented by the union.
“Our members have overwhelmingly supported this action,” said Dan Clay, president of UFCW Local 555. “And the community is behind us.”
Related: Workers at Fred Meyer stores in the Portland area are striking starting Wednesday morning
The parties remain at odds on financial issues such as wages and pensions. They are expected to return to the negotiating table on Thursday and Friday. Union leaders say the strike will continue until Tuesday morning if no agreement is reached by then.
Todd Kammeyer, president of Fred Meyer, said the grocery chain respects employees’ right to unionize.
“While the company supports our employees’ decision,” Kammeyer said in a statement, “Fred Meyer will remain open to provide the people of Portland with fresh groceries, essential goods and pharmacy services.”
A spokesman said in a statement that Fred Meyer is one of the largest unionized employers in the state of Oregon, with 13,000 workers.
