Press release
Stop the Merger – UFCW Unions 7, 324, 400, 770, 1564 and 3000
For immediate release: August 26, 2024
Contact: Tom Geiger, UFCW 3000, 206-604-3421
PORTLAND, OR – The Stop the Merger coalition, led by UFCW’s 7, 324, 400, 770, 1564 and 3000 unions, held a press conference today just before the highly anticipated federal court hearings on the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against the proposed mega-merger of Kroger and Albertsons. Workers and executives from California, Washington and Colorado, representing more than 100,000 grocery retail union members, reiterated their opposition to the anti-competitive, anti-worker and anti-community plan.
“We are fighting back because we know the proposed mega-merger between Kroger and Albertsons would likely result in job losses, store closures, pharmacy and grocery deserts, and higher prices, hurting working families in rural and urban communities across the country,” said Kim Cordova, vice president of UFCW International and president of Local 7, which represents workers in Colorado and Wyoming. “Kroger and Albertsons claim the merger is necessary to compete with Walmart and Amazon, but their real goal is to consolidate their power and increase their profits at the expense of workers and customers.”
Jessica Crowley, a member of UFCW Local 770 and a pharmacist at Albertsons-owned Pavilions Pharmacy in Los Angeles, California, said, “Competition is essential to maintaining access to medicines, especially during drug shortages. To be clear, this mega-merger will negatively impact retail workers, smaller suppliers, independent chains and communities that already struggle with access to food and medicine.”
Carol McMillian, manager of Kroger-owned King Soopers Bakery, Local 7, said, “Growing up, we always thought working at a grocery store was a secure, well-paying job that could support a family like mine. I worked for 11 years to work my way up to bakery manager at Safeway, but after Albertsons merged with Safeway in 2015, I felt like my job was at stake and started working at King Soopers instead to provide security as a single mother. But now we’re facing yet another merger that’s putting our jobs and livelihoods insecure.”
Kyong Barry, who works at an Albertsons Safeway store outside Seattle and has often served on her union’s collective bargaining team, added, “I’m proud that our local unions have stood up from the beginning and voiced our concerns about this proposed merger. Our ability as union members to negotiate a better contract is at stake with this merger. It must be stopped.”
The Federal Trade Commission’s case against the merger, joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Wyoming, began today in federal court in Portland, Oregon, and is expected to last at least two weeks. A second case brought by the Washington state attorney general is scheduled to begin on Sept. 16, and a third case brought by the Colorado attorney general is scheduled to begin on Sept. 30.
The Stop the Merger Coalition recently launched a customer petition ahead of the hearings that has quickly garnered thousands of signatures from concerned customers urging Kroger and Albertsons to stop the merger that threatens our communities with store closures, grocery and pharmacy deserts, thousands of laid-off union grocery workers, and higher prices. According to recent media reports, Kroger and Albertsons have already spent over $864,000,000 on the merger process.
