As many of you likely saw and heard yesterday, SuperValu, parent company of Shopper’s Food and Pharmacy, announced that it is being acquired by UNFI (United Natural Foods, Inc.) for around $2.9 billion. Based on the information that has been shared by the companies so far, they expect the sale to be completed in the last three months of the year.
Your collective bargaining agreement continues to protect you under this sale. It states that Shopper’s must have the agreement of any buyer of 10% or more of the Shopper’s stores to take our contract and the current employees as part of a sale. This means that UNFI will be bound by the terms and conditions of the agreement in the same way that SuperValu was. We will do everything we can to enforce that provision of our contract.
We fought hard to preserve that successorship language in your agreement during our last negotiations with SuperValu. Your union will continue to fight hard and do everything in our power to protect you and your family as this uncertain and difficult process moves forward. It is times like these when it is more important than ever that we are protected by our union and our union contract. We have a voice in this process that non-union workers do not. Over the last 30 years, Shopper’s has changed hands several time, but we have always maintained our contract.
We have been in touch with the company and will continue to be in communication with them to insist that they honor their obligations under our contract. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and our staff, attorneys, and other professionals are prepared to do whatever we can to preserve your jobs and our contract. In the meantime, we will keep you updated through your representatives and stewards, as well as our website, Facebook, and our text message system, which you can sign up for by texting “Shoppers” to 698329.
Right now we need to continue to stand together as union members and be ready to do whatever is necessary to protect what we have. Without our union we would be nothing but an afterthought in this deal. With our union and our solidarity, we have the power to fight to preserve our wages, benefits, and jobs. We will work together to make sure that happens.
You can read the press release about the sale at https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/unfi-to-acquire-supervalu-in-transformative-combination-creating-north-americas-premier-food-wholesaler-300687053.html