Kroger Worker Speaks Out on Forced Relocation

To quit or to commute? That’s the question that’s weighing heavy on the minds of the workers and Local 400 members in the Portsmouth, Va. Kroger store. Laverne Wrenn, (photo) shop steward at the store wrote this op-ed for her local newspaper, The Virginia Pilot, about her concerns and the concerns of her coworkers as they’re being forced to either relocate to the nearest union Kroger store, which is 50 miles away round trip, or quit. Meanwhile, the Kroger Marketplace stores that are being run non-union are mere miles away. "All of us who work in the High Street store are members of the Portsmouth community,” Wrenn wrote. "We live here and send our children to the neighborhood schools. Many of my co-workers walk or take the bus to work; they do not own a car. We have built our lives around this store and this community. But now Kroger is giving us just one month's notice to transfer to a store 25 miles away or lose our jobs."
- UFCW 400 newsletter

---