UFCW 400's McNutt Slams Delhaize America for "low-road approach"

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Delhaize America’s decision last week to close 126 stores, including six Bloom Supermarkets and one Bottom Dollar Food store in Northern Virginia “demonstrates the failure of Delhaize’s low-road approach to doing business in America,” said UFCW Local 400 President Tom McNutt. “Corporate executives in Brussels viewed the U.S. as if it was a Third World country — as a place where they could make a quick buck by driving their labor costs down to the lowest possible level,” said McNutt last week. “What they discovered was what they already knew in Europe — that a fairly compensated, fully-empowered, well-treated workforce provides the stability, productivity and quality service that are essential to long-term success in the retail grocery industry.” McNutt warned that “Delhaize’s experience should serve as a cautionary tale to another multinational conglomerate, Royal Ahold, which operates our unionized Giant stores here in the Washington, DC, area but is simultaneously following the failed Food Lion model with its Martin’s stores in Richmond.” UFCW 400 members have made Giant the leading  supermarket in the Washington/ Baltimore region, McNutt noted, yet Martin’s is losing money as it blocks its workers’ desire for union representation. “As our members enter bargaining on a new contract with Giant, Ahold would be well advised to avoid Delhaize’s mistakes and embrace the proven high-road strategy everywhere it operates.”