UFCW Wins Lunds & Bylerlys Contract After Holiday Strike Threat

MINNEAPOLIS — In the days leading to the July 4 holiday, union members at Lunds & Byerlys threatened a three-day Unfair Labor Practice Strike for June 29, June 30 and July 1.

That pressure helped move the employer to reach a tentative agreement on a contract with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663, which represents 2,500 workers at 22 metro area Lunds & Byerlys stores on the west side of the Mississippi River.

Workers voted July 1 to ratify the tentative agreement.

The new two-year agreement will provide historic wage increases for both full-time and part-time workers, maintain the workers’ current union-directed health plan with no increased costs to workers, and establish two different joint labor-management committees to address wage equity issues and worker safety concerns.

“This contract is truly historic. In the 35 years I’ve been in the retail grocery industry, I’ve never seen such a rich contract,” said Rosemary Luoma, Local 663 member from the St. Louis Park Lunds & Byerlys location and a member of the bargaining committee. “Lunds & Byerlys has now set the new standard for the grocery industry.”

Lunds & Byerlys workers had been working under an expired contract since March 7.

April 11, UFCW Local 663 members ratified a new contract with Cub Foods — winning a tentative agreement after threatening a strike during the Easter holiday weekend. “Cub paved the way for us,” Luoma said.

As Lunds & Byerlys negotiations continued, union members staged a series of in-store group walk-throughs and informational pickets at Lunds & Byerlys locations in Eagan, Golden Valley, Eden Prairie, Maple Grove and Bloomington.

Local 663 also filed Unfair Labor Practice charges, alleging among other violations that Lunds & Byerlys management had engaged in worker surveillance and coercion along with refusing to bargain in good faith.

June 23 members  voted to authorize an Unfair Labor Practice strike, which the bargaining committee announced June 26 would be set for June 29, June 30 and July 1 — a busy shopping time leading into the July 4 holiday week.

“We have members who are 30-40 year industry veterans who have not seen this behavior from the company,” said Rena Wong, Local 663 president, speaking at the June 26 news conference announcing the strike.

At a meeting that day following the strike announcement, other unions pledged support for Local 663 members if a strike came.

“I’m glad the direction our union is going in,” said Tim Hesteness, a 37-year Local 663 member  and meat manager at the Hwy. 7 Lunds & Byerlys, as the strike support meeting concluded. “I can’t believe what’s going on — we’re going to take charge and we’re going to do it… I’ve never seen anything like this but I’m glad to be part of it.”

That evening, however, the bargaining committee ­— which included 20 Lunds & Byerlys workers from 15 stores — reached a tentative agreement with the company, averting the strike.

UFCW Local 663 continues to work towards a fair contract with the Kowalski’s grocery chain. As the Labor Review went to press, Local 663’s Kowalski’s bargaining committee had set July 24 for an Unfair Labor Practice strike authorization vote.