Local unions under the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) hosted protests last week across the U.S. against the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger under a coordinated effort led by Stop the Merger, a group of more than 100 organizations opposing the merger.
Last Monday, Stop the Merger said grocery store workers from seven UFCW unions, which represent over 100,000 Kroger and Albertsons workers in 12 states and Washington, D.C., would hold actions in front of stores during the week.
Workers at 34 stores under the Kroger and Albertsons banners across Washington, West Virginia, California, Virginia and Washington, D.C. participated in the protests, per Stop the Merger’s website. Stop the Merger said in an email it gave away 5,000 “Stop the Merger” reusable grocery bags to shoppers in front of 65 King Soopers and Safeway stores in the Denver metro area on Friday.
@Safeway workers — @UFCW400 members — protest merger with @Albertsons pic.twitter.com/2hjt0DCtSo
— Metro Washington Labor Council AFL-CIO (@DCLabor) April 5, 2023
The Stop the Merger group, which is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to block the deal from moving forward, claims that the merger would create a monopoly in many areas across the country, including Colorado and Wyoming, job loss for grocery workers, higher food prices and financial hardship for farmers and suppliers.
Kroger representatives on behalf of both companies said in a statement to the Long Beach Business Journal that the merger would not result in any layoffs of frontline workers or closures of stores or facilities and would instead “grow jobs, lower prices and provide more choices to consumers across the U.S.”
“Kroger is one of America’s largest unionized workforces, and this merger secures the long-term future of union jobs while creating a more competitive alternative to large, non-union retailers,” the statement said, according to the paper. “Beginning day one, we will invest an additional $1 billion to raise wages and benefits, continuing our longstanding track record of associate investments.”
That statement echoes what the chief executives of both grocers said during a U.S. Senate hearing in November.
As Kroger and Albertsons grapple with broad opposition to their planned deal, the grocers have defended the plan and painted it as a positive development for the supermarket industry that would lower prices for consumers, increase efficiencies for suppliers, boost healthier food choices and increase associate wages and benefits. Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran told lawmakers during the Senate hearing that the grocers merged together would not be able to exert undue pricing influence on suppliers.
The nearly $25 billion merger, which was announced last fall, is currently undergoing the regulatory review process. Kroger and Albertsons have said they are prepared to make store divestitures to win FTC approval.
