State and local leaders have joined the union that represents Kroger grocery store employees demanding the company reverse its decision to shutter one of its Charlottesville locations.
That’s in spite of the fact that all of the nearly 75 workers at the 1904 Emmet St. N store have been promised jobs at the two Kroger locations within 3 miles of the store set to close Aug. 22. One of those locations is less than half a mile down the road.
“The reality is these stores are too far from one another for a transfer to be practicable,” reads a statement issued by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 union shortly after the closure was made public last month.
The farthest any relocated employee would have to travel to their new workplace would be Appomattox, nearly 70 miles away. Some others will move to Waynesboro and Staunton, just over Afton Mountain in the Shenandoah Valley. But an important distinction is all of those employees "chose" those farther-out locations, according to Robert Brown, regional director for the union in central and southeast Virginia.
The union organized a protest outside the 1904 Emmet St. Kroger Wednesday evening. It was one of four protests the union organized this week in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee after Kroger announced last month it would be closing 60 of its stores nationwide to achieve a “modest financial benefit.”
At the protest, Brown told The Daily Progress he was particularly concerned about part-time employees at the 1904 Emmet St. location having their hours reduced after relocation. He said the union just secured a minimum 12-hour schedule per week for part-time employees, but this would not be enough payable hours for someone who previously was working 35 hours a week.
“That’s going to be a big adjustment for them to go down there and be working 12 hours per week, so they’ll probably quit, right?” he said.
Kroger has never said it plans to reduce any employee’s hours. The company’s corporate office in Cincinnati did not immediately respond to a Daily Progress inquiry.
Though they did not join the 25-strong protest outside the 1904 Emmet St. Kroger, a representative for the area’s delegation to Richmond, state Sen. Creigh Deeds and Del. Katrina Callsen, was there circulating a letter the two Democrats had signed urging Kroger to reconsider its decision.
“We are hopeful that there is time to reevaluate the decision and that you have advocated for keeping this store open with your superiors,” the letter reads.
There was one elected official in attendance Wednesday: Charlottesville City Councilor Michael Payne.
“Obviously the decision whether the Kroger location leaves or stays in Charlottesville is beyond the direct control of City Council or local government,” he told The Daily Progress in an interview prior to addressing the protest. “But I think even given that, I think it’s important to speak just because we still have a voice to advocate for the interests of the community.”
Payne’s opposition to the Kroger closure stands in marked contrast to his attitude to the recent closure of a family-owned Charlottesville grocery store. There was no protest when Reid Super-Save Market at 600 Preston Ave. closed after 64 years in business this past January due to supply chain bottlenecks, diminishing foot traffic and lingering financial strain from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Payne said there is a difference between Reid closing and Kroger closing: Kroger has a union.
Payne said the potential loss of union jobs in Charlottesville was a major motivating factor in his decision to oppose the closure.
"I think unionization within the private sector workforce is extremely important in order to provide workers in our region the wages and benefits they need to live decent lives, and this represents a loss of union jobs in our community," he said.
Again, Kroger has promised to relocate all of the employees at the 1904 Emmet St. location to nearby stores. The two other Krogers in the Charlottesville area — at 1159 Emmet St. N in the Barracks Road Shopping Center and 1980 Rio Hill Center in the Rio Hill Shopping Center — are unionized. In fact, local union representative Steve Meador told The Daily Progress they both fall under his jurisdiction within then United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 and those employees would remain among the 35,000 members the union represents across seven states.
Further, he said that all union employees who accept their reassignments will maintain their union status and current pay.
Payne also said he was concerned for customers. Many can access the 1904 Emmet St. Kroger because it is on a Charlottesville Area Transit bus line. It should be noted, so is the Barracks Road Shopping Center Kroger. The Rio Hill Kroger’s bus stop was removed in 2021 after the shopping center’s landlord requested its removal over safety concerns for passengers making dangerous crossings and buses damaging the parking lot.
Kroger employees who spoke with The Daily Progress Thursday were largely indifferent to the decision to close the store.
Lynette Jordan, who is a part of the union but did not participate in the protest because she was manning a register, said she had been reassigned to the Barracks Road Shopping Center location. Since she already commutes 30 minutes to work, she said the additional five minutes of driving would be no bother.
Rickey Humes, who was on his break during the protest but also did not participate, said he was unbothered. He has also been reassigned to the Barracks Road Shopping Center location.
“I mean, it’s still a job, so I’m blessed to still have a job,” he said. “Could have been worse, in my opinion.”
Jordan did say she was going to miss the “family-oriented” setting at the 1904 Emmet St. Kroger, which she has heard is lacking at other Kroger locations.
“This is a family,” Michelle Ray, a longtime customer who attended the protest before heading into the store for some shopping Thursday, told The Daily Progress as she was checking out. “They always greet you. They’re always polite.”
“It’s really sad for the employees in there. It’s like breaking up a family,” Brown said. “When I was in here last week, talking to these employees one on one, they were literally in tears.”
No one was in tears Thursday.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com