Grocery Workers Mobilize for Shoppers Bargaining

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Declaring that workers will not pay the price for corporate mismanagement, members of United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 working at Shoppers Food & Pharmacy are forming an Activist Contract Team (ACT!), launching a new website, and mobilizing for collective bargaining. “We are standing together, standing strong and standing tough,” said Kevin Freeman, a Shoppers worker who is one of 20 Local 400 members serving on the Bargaining Advisory Committee and participating in negotiations. “We are committed to doing whatever it takes to get a contract that recognizes the enormous value we bring to Shoppers.” Coming off a challenging but successful round of bargaining earlier this year with Giant and Safeway marked by unprecedented worker activism, UFCW Local 400 members from all employers are rallying around Shoppers workers in demanding justice and fairness in a new contract to replace the one that expires on July 7. Shoppers is part of the troubled Supervalu chain, which has struggled for the past three years under the leadership of CEO Craig Herkert, who was named “the worst chief executive in the business” by Food World magazine last year. “We will not let Shoppers/Supervalu dump its financial problems on our members’ backs,” said UFCW Local 400 President Tom McNutt. “Workers are Shoppers’ greatest asset and the solution to the company’s problems, which lie exclusively in the executive suites. We are going to emphatically make the case that investing in Shoppers’ workers is the best and only way for the company to start growing and profiting again.”