We’d like to remind you, yet again, that this negotiation is critical to each and every one of us on the shop floor.  You claim that you are taking this negotiation seriously, yet we aren’t seeing negotiations move closer to an agreement.  It seems like you couldn’t be farther apart from trying to do what’s right by us and in turn, our customers, in this negotiation.

We’re calling on you NOW to stop your threats, your retaliation, your intimidation, and to just negotiate an agreement that is fair and just.  It’s a simple request and it’s the least you can do after all of the hard work that we’ve done for you over the years.

You’re trying to break up our Shoppers family and no one likes a home-wrecker.

Our advisory committee members sat in bargaining yesterday and listened to the company bargaining team. In the meantime, hundreds of union members on the shop floor continued to educate customers about the impact of this negotiation on their families. One thing we all have in common is that we recognize that this is not a game.

Management may believe that this negotiation is like a game of chess, scrabble, poker, etc. but rest assured it is by no means a game. We depend on our pay and benefits to take care of our families. We count on the fact that our customers continue to come back to see us when they do their weekly grocery shopping. We recognize that despite Supervalu’s financial blunders in the past, they are on track to bring their numbers back into the black.

Let us remind you–this is not a game, this is our lives. We hope that our company management team is reading this and they reconsider when they decide to retaliate on us for standing up for our customers and our stores. We take this very seriously…and we hope you will start to do so as well.

There’s only a few more days until July 7 and we are far away from reaching an agreement. Shoppers: The timer is running out and it’s time to bargain in good faith.

This just in—

Over the last week, we’ve received word that several of our fellow members of our advisory committee have been given words of warning from store management that violate our legal protections under the National Labor Relations Act.  We’ve been told in some cases that we can’t talk to customers at all and that our negotiations are an “internal” matter.  This is completely inaccurate.  What happens as part of this negotiation can and will impact our customers.  Some of us have even been approached by management when we are off the clock, shopping as customers ourselves. Continue reading →

From rank-and-file workers on the shop floor to our neighbors and customers, we’re being flooded with words of support and encouragement during these negotiations.  We’ve shared with all of them the importance of our contract negotiations, just like our fellow Shoppers Advisory Committee members did last week when they met the company’s bargaining team.

These committee members are rank-and-file workers from Shoppers stores from Northern VA to MD.  They faced management in negotiations and shared with them the critical need for all of us secure a contract that will keep our stores open, but not one that is full of concessions being placed upon our backs. Continue reading →

We’ve got a bit of background information on our employer that just might shock you. We’ve already been educating our co-workers about this at Shoppers and even at Save-A-Lot, the non-union banner that our employer operates.

Did you know that analysts are saying that Supervalu should make it out of their billions in debt just fine?

Did you know that despite our parent company’s trouble, we’re ranked three in the DMV (DC, MD, VA) area for retail food stores?

And did you know that our store managers were given Apple iPads, even with the company’s financial struggles? Seems odd considering the company continues to harp on its financial instability at the bargaining table.

We wonder what’s next for us, the workers on the shop floor, and more importantly, what’s next for our customers?

Read more background information on our financial fact sheet about Supervalu.

We’ve been on the shop floor for months since our shop steward seminar last  year talking about these negotiations and we’ve really thrown all of our energy into those discussions in the last few months.  We’re hearing the same feedback from our fellow members day in and day out–we’re understaffed and hours aren’t being allocated fairly.  In the end, our customers suffer greatly.  While we are faced with this difficult situation, the editor of one retail industry publication wrote a piece saying, “If Supervalu’s people are on board, then the pennies will start rolling in faster, and once the pennies are rolling in, it will become much easier to keep the people on board.”

We’ve always been on board.  We’ve been willing to sacrifice to ensure that our company could stay afloat, and it has.  One would think that Supervalu would take note and stop their constant attacks on the very workers and customers that are pulling the company out of their deep debt.  After all, it wasn’t us that made the decision to purchase Albertsons in California, throwing the entire company into a debt-ridden tailspin.   Continue reading →

In a release issued earlier this week from UFCW Local 400, ACT! members from Giant and Safeway shared some words of advice and solidarity with those of us at Shoppers.  Each of our fellow union members that are listed in the release were actively involved as part of the bargaining advisory committee for the negotiations at Giant and Safeway earlier this year.  Due to their activism, as well as that of hundreds of other members and thousands of customers, Local 400′s bargaining team was able to successfully deliver a fair contract.

Several of these Giant/Safeway ACT! members have been teaching all of us to become activists.  They’ve promised that they will be fighting with us on the shop floor as wel as throughout our communities.  They’ve already done a great job of spreading the word about our negotiations and the fact that management isn’t taking this process seriously. Continue reading →