With strike looming, Kroger improves “last best offer”

Following two days of negotiations, Kroger has reached a tentative agreement with its unionized store associates. A team of Kroger employees who make up UFCW Local 400’s bargaining committee in negotiations with the company voted unanimously to accept the company’s latest offer. “If we didn’t stand up for ourselves, this never would have happened,” said Sarah Williams, a nine-year Kroger associate from Charlottesville who served on the bargaining committee. “What we were shown last week was supposed to be Kroger’s ‘last’ and ‘best’ offer – but we proved it wasn’t either.” “For months now, I’ve sat across the table from Kroger executives as they made us many different proposals. Yesterday’s offer was by far the best one,” said Dawn Greenway, a lead deli clerk at a Kroger store in Roanoke. “It included improvements in all of the areas we were concerned about.” The tentative agreement affects 41 Kroger stores in the region stretching from Kingsport, TN to Harrisonburg, VA. The proposal will be voted on by the entire union membership at a meeting on June 8 at the Roanoke Civic Center, when the details of the company’s latest offer will be presented. Click here to read more. 
​photo: at last week's contract/strike vote; photo courtesy UFCW 400 Facebook page

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