Wayne Williams, president of Poe Construction, conducts a tour of the dry storage area that Poe Construction was building for the UNFI grocery distribution center.
The ongoing saga between United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) and personnel in their Tacoma plant over wages and health care benefits rages on, as the corporation continues to deny the transfer of terms and conditions of Teamsters Local Union 117’s and Local 313’s (clerks) existing contract once the workforce transfers to the corporation’s new Centralia-based distribution center.
Earlier this week, a UNFI media rep contacted The Chronicle to address the transition of Tacoma staff, saying that the company is “trying to do the right thing by the union” in offering them the option of either joining non-union workers at the 1.2-million square-foot Port of Centralia storage facility — about a 45-minute drive south of their current location — or accept a “quality” severance package.
UNFI’s Chief Legal Officer Jill Sutton specifically addressed an Oct. 7 arbitrator’s decision supporting the union request to uphold contractual language of the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) previously negotiated with Supervalu Inc., which formerly owned the Tacoma warehouse.
“While UNFI remains confident that there is a path to reaching a consensual agreement with our valued associates in Tacoma, we also believe that the arbitrator’s recent decision is unlawful and flawed because we cannot extend union contract terms — in blatant violation of federal requirements — at our non-union Centralia distribution center,” she said. “It completely contradicts regulatory and labor law principles to force UNFI to create a wage and benefit structure that would apply to one set of employees and not others with the same positions and responsibilities in Centralia. This is why today (Oct. 28) we have proceeded with filings in federal court and with the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board).”
Brian Lester, a 30-year warehouse worker at the Tacoma facility, is one of several union members who are taking UNFI to task in their refusal to comply with the labor contract. He said the recent independent arbitrator ruling endorses that he and his 200-plus colleagues “follow the work” and that “nothing changes,” other than the building they’ll continue working in.
Lester said UNFI laid off about 20 Tacoma employees within a day or two of the arbitrator decision and also pulled all retention bonuses — over a period of 12 weeks — which were extended to staffers to prevent a “mass exodus” of personnel prior to the Tacoma site’s forthcoming closing date on Nov. 30.
He explained: “So, the guys were like, ‘Ok, I won’t take the job at Safeway. I won’t go to another union shop. I’ll stay till the end because you promised me a retention bonus that’s going to be negotiated through the union.’ The union comes back and says, ‘In order for you to get that retention bonus, you’ll have to sign away the arbitrator decision.’ We’re not doing that.”
Since then, a total of approximately 80 workers have reportedly left UNFI without retention bonuses to seek other employment.
An Oct. 24 letter from UNFI to their Tacoma employees revised the terms of the retention bonuses over a period of 16 weeks, But by accepting the offer, the workers would eliminate all hope of future employment with the company and waive their contractual rights backed by the arbitrator’s decision, according to Lester.
Furthermore, Lester suggested that non-union members of UNFI’s Centralia staff should also be afforded the same union benefits if or when Tacoma personnel move to the new facility.
“The workers that are down there (should) want to join our union and be covered under the same contractual benefits,” he added.
Those benefits would include a family healthcare package that pays each individual $1,650 a month at zero cost to the employee.
Centralia workers, it was noted, must pay for their own medical expenses, and their salaries max out at $25 per hour, which falls short of the $30 per hour earned by many Tacoma union members.
Both sides agreed to meet on Thursday and Friday to continue negotiating severance packages for Tacoma-based UNFI workers who may have lost interest in working for the company.
Local 117’s Secretary-Treasurer John Searcy said his team would hold the employer to the contractual commitments made to employees in an effort to preserve their livelihoods and “good” family wage jobs.
But while Searcy remains confident that the courts will uphold the decision and award issued by the arbitrator last month despite UNFI’s appeal, other union members, such as shop steward, Greg Wiest sees a long battle ahead.
“UNFI’s decision to once again not honor our contract is just another step in what we believe is their overall strategy to drag this out so long that there will eventually be no one left in the fight. They won’t bargain in good faith because that are saying that they don’t believe any of us want to work in Centralia. This couldn’t be further from the truth,” he shared. “We want to follow our work and we want to work alongside the employees who are currently in that warehouse. We want to show them what it means to be a Teamster and that they have rights. That big corporations like UNFI can’t mistreat them … The worst part about this whole situation is that we are fighting for our lives for the right to work for a company that doesn’t even care about us.”
Meanwhile, UNFI management, including Chief Supply Officer Paul Green, is hoping that both the public and union members understand the challenges the publicly-traded corporation faces in ensuring their long-term success.
“We firmly believe that the events of the past year have proven that UNFI remains very much pro-labor and pro-associate while adapting its business to today’s economic realities and consumer expectations,” he maintained in an Oct. 28 company statement. “The fact is that in order for UNFI to thrive and meet the needs of its various stakeholders … we must have labor agreements that allow us to be flexible and nimble in a rapidly changing food distribution environment.”
Lester proposed a smooth transition whereby Tacoma staff can continue working in Centralia under the existing contract that expires in 2021, or in approximately 90 weeks.
In fact, he told The Chronicle that he would gladly join his colleagues in using their years of experience to get the Centralia plant “up and running” and delay the bargaining until July 2021, the date by which a new deal would have to be negotiated. Not adhering to the arbitration ruling, he predicted, would only work to UNFI’s disadvantage.
“When NLRB or whatever courts rule in our favor, that can be a huge check in backpay. To pay us back wages, back pension benefits and back medical premiums— it seems like it’s a pretty big gamble rather than just bringing us down there for the next 90 weeks,” he observed.
Whatever the outcome of ongoing talks, Lester is steadfast in his belief that he and his union brethren have no plans of “selling out” or “devaluing” their contract by modifying terms and benefits. Doing so, he reasoned, would set a bad precedent for all other union members in the United States and essentially put a price on every labor contract.
