Business & Tech

Is Grocery Union Right to Target Non-Union Stores?

The UFCW grocery union plans to step up its protests at non-union stores once it wraps up contract negotiations with Raley's, Save Mart and other chains.

Shoppers at the in Elk Grove could soon see pickets lines and protesters–but they won't be employees of that store.

The grocery union United Food and Commercial Workers Local 8, based in Roseville, plans to picket all area Nuggets, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.

The union, which is in the midst of heated contract negoiations with , and Safeway, is encouraging shoppers to visit those stores instead of non-union alternatives like Nugget. And it "intends to establish picket lines at all Nugget stores after it wraps up current contract negotiations," the Business Journal reported.

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Nugget, which has been repeatedly ranked in Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For, lags in pay and benefits, the union told the Business Journal.

“These lines are meant to inform the public of the need to maintain and improve standards in the industry, and they will continue as long as this need exists,” United Food and Commercial Workers Local 8 president Jacques Loveall said to the Business Journal.

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Other local grocery stores, like and , do not have unionized employees.

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Disclosure: Cody Kitaura is a former Raley's employee and former member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

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Elk Grove, what do you think of this dispute? Should all grocery stores be unionized, or is it OK that stores like Nugget are not? Would a picket line stop you from shopping at a non-union store? Tell us in the comments section.


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