Drawing the Line at Kroger in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky
Nearly 3,500 UFCW Local 400 members in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky walked off the job on October 13, vowing not to return until the company agrees to provide decent health care benefits.
Kroger’s profits jumped nearly 10 percent in 2002. In the past several years, the company has earned $2.5 billion in profits and $562 million in profits so far this year. Yet the grocer is underfunding employee benefit plans, refusing to provide adequate health care.
Workers saw Kroger’s contract offer for what it is, unmitigated greed, and voted nearly unanimously to strike. Under the company’s proposal, it would take nearly 45 percent of a part-time deli worker’s weekly wages to get family health care coverage.
While the company continues to see record sales and profits, Kroger is attempting to use the Wal-Mart rationale—as it is doing in negotiations nationwide—to justify benefit cuts. A Wall Street analyst reported that in 2002, Kroger’s sales, operating profit and market share were the same, and even better, in markets where Wal-Mart is a significant player. The fact is, the hard work of UFCW members has made Kroger the country’s dominant supermarket—and Kroger is attempting to repay that hard work by devastating health care benefits.
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