Union calls for boycott of Fred Meyer

She said her ex-husband, however, had pledged to honor the boycott.

She felt the union had the right idea in seeking a boycott, “but bearing in mind we have two grocery stores here and we don’t have a lot of places to shop. I don’t know what they expect us to do.”

Another shopper on her way into the store, who declined to give her name, said she’d heard of the boycott but didn’t consider honoring it.

A male shopper who also declined to be named said, “I didn’t even think about it.” A truck driver who has delivered to local stores, he said “unionized stores tend to have better service and happier employees.” He said there were just two major store chains to choose from in The Dalles, “and that’s what makes it hard in this town.”

Some 94 percent of union members authorized a strike over the summer, should negotiations reach an impasse. The union was set to take its next step on Saturday, Sept. 28, following a two-day negotiation session, the 13th since talks began, a union spokeswoman said.

Kelley McAllister, communications director for United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 555, said the union is getting anecdotal evidence that the boycott, which it has never tried before, has been successful.

“So far, I would say it is going very, very well from our point of view. Of course, the next step will depend on what happens at bargaining.”

A call to a Fred Meyer spokesperson was not returned by presstime.

McAllister said the 94-percent vote authorizing a strike was “especially shocking because a strike is scary to contemplate. It really demonstrates the severity of what we’re asking for, that we are demanding wage increases not to be greedy but because people literally can’t live on what they’re making. So people are willing to do what they need to do to make that point.”

McAllister said Fred Meyer has said such a boycott would push customers to non-union stores, but she said other major stores are also in the labor negotiations, including Safeway, Albertson’s and CVS.

Over 90 contracts are involved.

Stores that are non-union include Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Winco, and New Seasons, McAllister said.

Fred Meyer recently began advertising for replacement workers, at a wage of $15 an hour, in the eventuality of a strike.

The union did research last year of Portland Fred Meyer stores and found women were disproportionately in lower-paying jobs at the store, with an average wage gap of $3.50 an hour. Fred Meyer has only proposed “a dime more over the other wage increases” for the lower-wage groups. “At that rate it’s going to take us 35 years to get gender equity.”

The price differential could mean losing up to $346,000 over a 45-year career, according to union calculations.

Fred Meyer officials have said the union is misrepresenting the wage gap between what are called Schedule A and Schedule B jobs, which fall within the broad category called grocery. The store said the jobs in each category are open to anyone, and applicants are encouraged and able to pick a job they’d like.

They said the jobs within each category pay the same, regardless of the gender of the worker.

McAllister said the union doesn’t dispute that. “They’re saying if you work in the same department, you make the same amount of money. Our response is, that’s not what we’re concerned about. That is true, and that is not our point.”

She said the union’s response to Fred Meyer’s statement is, “You’re telling me 2/3 of women would like to be paid less?”

The Schedule B jobs, whose average wage is $13.69 an hour, are in the deli, bakery, Starbucks kiosks, and workers who do shopping for clicklist customers. Some 68 percent of those workers are women. The union has noticed, McAllister said, that every time a new department is created, it is put into Schedule B.

The average wage of a Schedule A job is $17.22 an hour, and only 33 percent of the jobs are held by women, according to union figures.

Fred Meyer has said the Schedule A jobs do pay more, but that is due to variables including difficulty and scheduling requirements. Schedule A jobs include grocery stocking, produce, the cold wall where milk is sold, and night crew.

McAllister said contracts differ in different places, but in Portland, entry-level workers across the two schedules start at an identical wage, but once they reach journeyman status in 4.5 years, the wage discrepancy kicks in.

“So people can spend four years not knowing they will be $3.50 behind ktheir counterparts, and by then, they’re settled in their position,” McAllister said.

The contract negotiations actually involve a number of grocery chains, including Safeway, Albertson’s and CVS. The reason Fred Meyer is being targeted for a boycott is because of alleged unfair labor practices, McAllister said, including the store meeting one-on-one with workers and “threatening and debasing them and coercing them to leave the union.

“If you’re represented by a union, you can’t have a meeting without a union rep, that’s the whole point of a union,” McAllister said. She said numerous people have reported having the so-called “captive audience” meetings.

Fred Meyer disputes such meetings have happened.

The union has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

McAllister does not sit in on union negotiations, which can see up to 40 people representing the union, but she is posted outside to hear results, and at times “there’s been quite a bit of shouting.”

Fred Meyer has said in postings on its webpage that union workers won’t see a change in their health insurance, and workers pay less than $100 a month in premiums for family coverage. They also have a pension, unlike many other competitors.

On its webpage, Fred Meyer said it offers one of the best total compensation packages in retail grocery in the region. The union commissioned a third-party organization to study pay differentials, and found, for the first time, McAllister said, the wage gap between the two schedules. The third-party group found it dated to the 1930s, when women first joined the workforce and the company opened delis. The jobs were gender specific and had titles like “deli girl.” Those women were specifically prohibited from moving to other departments, she said.

The union does not believe the pay discrepancy is intentional, but is just a product of the wage structure now in use.