Employees at 28 Fred Meyer stores in and around Portland will go on strike starting at 6 a.m. Wednesday and will continue until 8 a.m. Sept. 3 unless an agreement is reached by then.
The Hawthorne Fred Meyer store is pictured on Monday, September 23, 2019 in Portland, Oregon.
Kate Davidson / OPB
The negotiating team of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 555 and representatives of Fred Meyer’s parent company Kroger have not yet been able to reach an agreement after five rounds of negotiations. Another meeting between the two sides is scheduled to take place on Thursday.
A Fred Meyer spokesman did not immediately respond to OPB’s request for comment on the strike.
Union leaders say the strike is necessary to get Kroger to reach an agreement. The parties still disagree over pensions and pay scales, among other issues. An unfair labor practice strike, often called a ULP, is a common tool used by unions and is by definition a temporary protest.
“A ULP strike is critical to forcing Fred Meyer to fulfill its obligations as an employer to its workers,” Dan Clay, president of UFCW Local 555, said in a statement, adding that members overwhelmingly approved the strike.
The strike announcement comes at the same time that Fred Meyer’s parent company Kroger is defending a proposed merger in federal district court in Portland this week. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and several states, including Oregon, have filed suit to block a merger between Kroger and competitor Albertsons. The FTC claims the merger is anti-competitive and could lead to lower wages and higher prices.
UFCW Local 555 was the union’s only local to support the merger, but withdrew its support for the proposed plan earlier this month. Union leaders said the tactics used during the current bargaining process were one of the reasons the group withdrew its support.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden told OPB that he has visited Fred Meyer locations across the state and spoken to employees and customers about the proposed merger.
“The reason there is so much concern is that Oregonians believe this merger would create another mega-chain,” Wyden told OPB’s Think Out Loud on Monday. “And that mega-chain would take it out on consumers and employees, and we would have higher prices and lower wages.”
In a statement to OPB, a Kroger representative said the merger would do the opposite and instead expand food access to more communities.
