The Chicago Tribune reports that Safeway has criticized the recent strike authorization vote by workers in its Dominick’s division in Chicago as “flawed,” unfair, and undemocratic, saying that the employees were intimidated by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union.
Safeway called for a new vote, a suggestion rejected by the UFCW, which called the retailer’s accusations “completely untrue and unfounded.”
Safeway is looking for wage and health care concessions from the union, and has said that its last offer is its final offer, threatening to close or sell the Dominick’s stores if the union does not capitulate.
Such a capitulation has not yet happened.
Safeway called for a new vote, a suggestion rejected by the UFCW, which called the retailer’s accusations “completely untrue and unfounded.”
Safeway is looking for wage and health care concessions from the union, and has said that its last offer is its final offer, threatening to close or sell the Dominick’s stores if the union does not capitulate.
Such a capitulation has not yet happened.
- KC's View:
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Without passing judgment on whether the union coerced its membership, we have to say that we haven’t been intimidating anyone -- and still the emails keep rolling in, with very few defending Safeway’s management of the Dominick’s stores.
Finding hostility toward Safeway among its Chicago employees doesn’t seem to be a problem; we’re not sure how much encouragement the union needed to provide.
