White is one of 3,300 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 400 who were locked out by the giant grocery chain on October 13 after voting by a large majority to strike. Forty-four stores in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky are affected by the lockout. Most are closed, except for the pharmacies and bank branches inside. Workers picket the stores six days a week.

“Kroger earned $2.5 billion dollars over the past several years, and has $562 million in profits so far this year,” said Local 400 president Jim Lowthers in a press release on the day the lockout began. “Yet it is underfunding employee benefit plans. Kroger’s policy apparently is ‘Billions for Profits, No Benefits for People.’”

Marianne McFadden, 39, who works in the store’s floral department, said that after five years with the company she makes only $6.55 an hour, “but with full health-care coverage, I didn’t want to complain.” Now she is walking the picket line because of Kroger’s plans to cut health coverage.

Bernie White chimed in, “They used to pay us double time on Sunday, but no more. If you get 40 hours in a week, they will pay time and a half for Sundays and holidays. But part-time workers routinely work Sundays and holidays for straight time.”

One of the pickets at another Kroger’s here, J.C. Davis, 23, a senior at West Virginia University, told the Militant that he has worked as a part-time stocker at the Patteson Avenue store for four years and makes $6.45.

UFCW representative Chuck Miller said, “we’ve received donations of at least $500 from all of the union locals in Morgantown.” The grocery workers have also received food and financial support from UFCW locals in Colorado and West Virginia. Members of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) Local 5-957 at the nearby Mylan Pharmaceutical Co. have pledged to help picket. Workers described other examples of solidarity, including contributions by former customers and donations of food by local restaurants.

Union miners in this coal-mining region have also backed the locked-out workers. Pickets reported that 40 members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) showed up to help picket at a store in Bridgeport, West Virginia. The union has also received letters of support from UMWA Local 1717 and Freddie Maynard, the chairman of UMWA District 17, Sub-District No. 2 Food Association. Maynard suggested in his letter that Kroger “stop paying its ‘Big Wheels’ millions of dollars in bonuses” so they could fund health care for their employees.

Working people are aware of the legacy of struggles by the UMWA. Keith Hoff, 40, who has worked at the Patteson Avenue Kroger for nine years, described how coal miners’ strikes in the 1970s impressed him as a boy. And Marianne McFadden said, “My brother in law was killed in the mines in 1996, and he was union all the way. If he were alive he would be here standing with us.”

Marty Ressler is a member of UFCW Local 23, and works in Arnold, Pennsylvania.  
 
 
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