An important message from UFCW Local 400 President Mark Federici
To UFCW Local 400 members working at Kroger under our Roanoke and Richmond/Tidewater contracts:
I write to you today with an important and urgent update about your health care.
As Kroger union members, you benefit from health care coverage provided by our union contract. For those of you working under our Roanoke or Richmond/Tidewater contracts (not our West Virginia contract), these benefits are paid for and administered through a central fund called the Heartland Fund of which we are a participant, along with a few other UFCW locals with Kroger contracts in several other states.
As you know, maintaining our health care is often the most contentious issue we address in bargaining contracts – Kroger always wants to cut benefits, and we always have to fight to keep what we have.
Now we must fight again.
Kroger is proposing steep cuts to our health care benefits for members working under our Richmond/Tidewater and Roanoke contracts. (These proposed cuts do not apply to members working under our West Virginia contract because those benefits are administered under a separate fund).
Kroger wants to slash our coverage to save money even though they can easily afford to cover the costs. Just look at the numbers:
- In 2024, Kroger made more than $33 billion in annual gross profit – a nearly 5% increase over the previous year.
- Not only that, Kroger was prepared to spend $25 billion to purchase Albertsons, a rival grocery chain. Ultimately, amid intense pushback from our Stop the Merger coalition, the Federal Trade Commission successfully blocked the deal because it would raise prices, cut jobs, increase food deserts, and monopolize the grocery industry.
- Even though it failed, the two companies spent nearly $1 billion more just to cover legal costs associated with the attempted merger – that’s enough to give every worker at both companies a $1,200 bonus!
- As soon as the merger deal was terminated, Kroger announced plans to spend $7.5 billion buying its own stock in order to inflate the share price and enrich Wall Street investors. That’s more than double the amount they spent on boosting associates’ pay over the last seven years!
With all these billions of dollars, Kroger could easily afford to cover our health care costs, raise pay, increase staffing, and invest in store improvements. But instead they want to cut our benefits and spend that money on rewarding shareholders.
In fact, the only reason we agreed to move to the Heartland Fund in the first place was because of Kroger promises to save on administrative costs and ensure our health care benefits would be fully funded. But even after agreeing to that, now Kroger wants to cut our health care coverage in the middle of a contract before we even begin negotiating our next one.
We won’t stand for it. As we have always done, we will do everything in our power to fight to keep our health care benefits. We must show Kroger we are united and will fight to keep what we have. The only way we will win is if we stick together. I know we can count on you.
We will have more information to share as this process moves forward. We are committed to keeping you updated every step of the way. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions. Talk to your shop steward or union representative, or call our headquarters at 301-459-3400 (Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.).