Central Minnesota Grocery Workers Call for Strike During Christmastime
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663, representing more than 650 essential grocery workers at Minnesota’s five Brainerd Lakes-area union grocery stores, has revealed its intention to hold a four-day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike Dec. 22-25.
According to UFCW, workers at Quisberg’s Cub Foods in Brainerd and Baxter, Pequot Lakes SuperValu, and Miner’s Super One Foods in Baxter and Crosby have had their rights repeatedly violated, and they overwhelmingly voted last week to authorize the union bargaining committee to call for an ULP strike if needed.
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“Quisberg’s and Miner’s have engaged in unfair labor practices meant to stop us from exercising our rights, despite our tireless efforts to serve customers every day,” noted the UFCW Local 663’s member bargaining committee statement released on YouTube. “We keep Cub Foods, Super One and SuperValu running through the busy holiday seasons, and customers notice. We are proud of the communities we serve.
“The decision to call a strike is not an easy one to make. It is always a last resort. However, we have to stand up for our rights as essential workers," continued the statement. "We continue to bargain in good faith for a contract that reflects our hard work and a workplace that honors the rights we have.”
UFCW Local 663 members are asking for better wages and benefits.
Union members at Cub Foods, SuperValu and Super One Foods said that they have been working without a collective bargaining agreement since Dec. 3.
As reported by the Brainerd Dispatch, Boyd Hanson, director of human resources at Miner’s, said that they started bargaining with the union prior to the close of the contract in late November and continued until Dec. 1, but they did not come to an agreement. Hanson added that the union voted down an earlier offer, which was reiterated Dec. 11. The notice of the intent to strike came the following day. As for the union citing unfair labor practices, employers disagreed with that assessment.
Hanson said that they will continue to bargain in good faith.
Meanwhile, Chris Quisberg, president of Baxter-based S & R Quisberg Inc., said that he would much rather talk with the union representatives at the bargaining table than in the press.
“We are very happy to serve this community, and we have for three generations, and we’d like to continue that,” Quisberg said.
Both Miner’s and Quisberg’s grocery stores in Baxter, Crosby, Brainerd and Pequot Lakes intend to be open Dec. 22-24 but at reduced hours, closing earlier.
Earlier this year, thousands of metro-area UFCW Local 663 members at UNFI Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski’s Markets, and Seward Community Co-op voted to authorize ULP strikes but were able to restore their rights on the job, and come to tentative agreements on their union contracts. The earliest ULP strike, set to start before the busy Easter weekend, was averted just hours before it was slated to start.
UFCW Local 663 represents more than 17,000 essential retail, meat-packing and -processing, food preparation and manufacturing, health care, and other workers in Minnesota. Local 663 is part of the 1.3 million-member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
