KROGER Employees resent ratified agreement

Employees will pay higher costs for prescription drugs.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Employee ratification of a contract with the Kroger Co. did not resolve workers' anger with the three-year agreement, union leaders say.
"Sixty-eight percent of those voting did ratify the contract, but it was done grudgingly," said John Marrone, spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1099. "I would think that the resentment over the agreement can't help but affect the morale of workers who have been very loyal to this company through the years."
Members of the union representing thousands of the Cincinnati-based grocery chain's employees in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky ratified the contract last week.
Local 1099 President Lennie Wyatt said then that the contract was ratified only because a strike seemed a worse alternative.
He said Kroger negotiators would have understood just how deep the resentment was if they had been at the ratification meetings. Marrone echoed that sentiment Friday.
"I attended several of the ratification meetings and I saw the resentment firsthand," Marrone said. "I think the negotiations showed a lot of longtime Kroger employees just how the company feels about them. And the key words to describe workers' feelings would be anger, reluctance and resentment."
Challenges
Kroger has described the contract as fair and balanced and recognizes the challenges it faces in competing with nonunion Wal-Mart Stores and other mass-merchandising and discount retailers.
"We were a little bit surprised by the union leadership's reaction, especially since union leaders had fully endorsed and recommended the agreement and 68 percent of those who voted approved it," Kroger spokesman Gary Rhodes said.
Rhodes said he didn't believe labor-management relations would suffer from what union leaders describe as lingering resentment over the contract.
"What is important to keep in mind is that both sides were able to work together to reach this agreement," Rhodes said. "It is an important first step in making Kroger more competitive."
He said the savings from health-care changes and other provisions would enable the company to offset advantages that competitors have.
The union has not released many details of the contract.
It has said that employees would have to begin contributing toward their monthly health-care premiums beginning Jan. 1.
Single employees will contribute $5 a week, employees with children $10 a week and employees with spouses or families $15 a week.
Some details released later show the contract's resemblance to other agreements between Kroger and the UFCW around the country.
Details
Union officials say the median wage for workers will be $11.50 an hour. Employees will pay higher costs for prescription drugs, and retirees will pay a portion of the cost of their insurance based on years of service.
Rick Hurd, a professor of labor studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., told The Cincinnati Enquirer that he wasn't surprised by the union's statements.
He said the purpose of those statements was "not only to send a message to Kroger and to the public, but also to their own members, that this doesn't mean that they're just going to be a weak union that accepts compromise."
About 8,500 cashiers, grocery baggers and clerks in meat, produce and delicatessen departments at 70 stores in the Cincinnati area, northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana are covered by the contract.
Kroger is one of the nation's largest supermarket companies with operations in 32 states.