The Cincinnati Enquirer, October 29, 2004, Friday

The Cincinnati Enquirer

October 29, 2004 Friday Final Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 1E

HEADLINE: After agreement, Kroger workers angry, dismayed

BYLINE: By John Byczkowski Enquirer staff writer

BODY:
With a new three-year labor agreement in place, Kroger Co. and the local union representing 8,500 meat cutters and clerks may have achieved peace, but not necessarily contentment.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1099, after members ratified the new agreement by a 2-1 margin Wednesday, said their members did so reluctantly.
"Kroger workers are angry at the changes the company insisted on," president Lennie Wyatt said in a news release. "They are also greatly dismayed at the way they have been treated by the company they rebuilt to profitability after it was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1988."
That didn't go unnoticed by Kroger. "To make a statement like that when the contract itself is less than 24 hours old is a little surprising to me," said Reuben Shaffer, vice president of operations for Kroger's Cincinnati-Dayton division and a member of the bargaining committee.
He said Kroger, which sought to cut labor costs in the face of growing competition by Wal-Mart and other low-cost competitors, got an agreement the company can live with.
"What we asked for were things that were directly related with advantages that our competition has over us," he said.
The cost savings from health care and other aspects of the contract, "we're going to put that back in better stores, bigger stores and lowering of prices."
Wyatt, in an interview Thursday, said Local 1099 members are feeling the pressure of rising health cares costs and a weak labor market.
Many of the compromises in the contract - including workers' picking up more of the cost of health insurance - are things common in the rest of the labor market.
Much of what's new in this contract has already been negotiated into other contracts between Kroger and the UFCW in other cities. Those changes include:
Higher costs for prescription drugs.
Imposition of weekly premiums for health care coverage. The company previously paid all premiums. Family coverage now costs $15 a week for full-time workers, and some workers will pay a $25 surcharge if a spouse has access to health care at another workplace.
Health care premiums for retirees.
A new wage structure that pays newly hired part-time workers less than full-time workers.
Changes not phased in
The median wage at the 70 Kroger stores in Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana is $11.50 per hour; half make more, half less, Wyatt said. .
Kroger wouldn't agree to phase in the health care changes, he said. Another problem: Because the stock market has been weak for several years, bigger contributions by Kroger were needed to ensure the pension fund could meet future obligations. That meant less money was available for wage increases for current workers, Wyatt said.
The new contract is less generous than the last one, signed in 1999, which carried larger wage increases and other improvements for workers, he said.
The aim of the new contract "was to try to find a balance, to try to keep people moving forward but also try to provide some balance for (Kroger) in the face of Wal-Mart, which doesn't have the same type of health care and pension our people have," he said.
Kroger's Shaffer agreed. "This needed to be a joint survival agreement," he said.
Tough to stand firm
Local 1099's expression of frustration "sounds like a very reasonable and realistic statement," said Rick Hurd, a professor of labor studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "It think it's true that when the economy is bad, unions are in a position where it's more difficult to stand firm on contract negotiations." The purpose of the statement, he said, was "not only to send a message to Kroger and to the public, but also to their own members, that this doesn't mean that they're just going to be a weak union that accepts compromise."