Kroger settles, reopens stores

Monthly Labor Review, Oct, 1984

The Kroger Co. agreed to reopen more than 40 of the 70 Eastern Michigan supermarkets it had closed a month earlier. About 2,800 of the 5,000 workers who had lost their jobs as a result of the store closings were expected to be rehired. Kroger said the shutdowns were necessary because compensation levels for store clerks and for meat cutters were not competitive with those at nonunion supermarkets in the area.

The approved settlement between the company and several United Food and Commercial Workers locals called for 5- to 13-percent pay cuts as well as cuts in paid vacation and sick leave days.

So far this year, Kroger had closed about 90 stores in Louisiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and compensation reduction negotiations were underway in Central Indiana. Kroger's 1983 profit fell 12 percent, to $126 million, and the company dropped to number 2 in sales, behind Safeway Stores, even though its sales rose to $15 billion, from $12 billion.