Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 7, 1995 TAG: 9511070062
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The strike notice follows a vote Saturday night by union members who work at the warehouse to reject Kroger's latest contract offer.
Roughly 300 truck drivers, mechanics and warehousemen have been working under terms of a contract that expired Feb. 26, 1994. They turned down a previous contract offer by the company in July by a 232-1 margin.
The closer 158-106 margin of Saturday's rejection vote might be attributed to the certainty of a strike that it represented.
Union officials declined to talk about the situation Monday on the advice of their lawyer. Jim Sherwood, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters local, confirmed, however, that the company and union were not negotiating.
The warehouse, off U.S. 11/460 west of Salem, supplies 60 Kroger supermarkets - all the Cincinnati-based company's stores in Virginia and North Carolina and a half-dozen in the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee, according to Kroger spokesman Archie Fralin.
"We sure hope not," Fralin said when asked if he thought the strike would happen.
Fralin said the company was unsure when the strike was supposed to occur because it had been given conflicting information about the number of days' notice that the union had given. However, a union source who, fearing reprisal, asked not to be named said the notice was for 10 days, which would put the start of the strike Nov. 14.
Wages and contract language related to working conditions at the warehouse and job security are the major issues in the labor dispute.
The current top wage for union workers at the distribution center has increased 40 cents an hour over the past 10 years and now stands at $11.70, the union source said. Besides the effects of inflation, that wage has been eroded by a master contract that was signed by Kroger and the Teamsters last year, which increases the amount workers pay for health care.
The company made the union what it believed was a very good offer last week, Fralin said. The wages the company offered were comparable to those at other Kroger warehouses and for similar work in the Roanoke Valley, he said.
Fralin said it was unclear to Kroger whether the United Food and Commercial Workers, a union representing workers at Kroger stores, would honor any picket lines of the warehouse employees. The store workers face their own contract negotiations early next year.
Fralin said the company will try to minimize any disruptions to customers.
by CNB