To Our Kroger/Albertsons Teamsters Brothers and Sisters,

We know many of you are wondering how the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons could affect your stores and jobs. You may have heard about a company called C&S Wholesale Grocers that might buy your location as part of the proposed merger. Despite whatever you’ve heard from management or co-workers, please know this merger is not a done deal. In fact, both Colorado and Washington State are suing Kroger and Albertsons to stop the merger entirely. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters continues to strongly and completely oppose this merger and will continue to let every government official involved in reviewing this merger know this, without fail.

C&S is a wholesale grocery company with a small presence in our area serving independent “mom-and-pop” stores. While we don’t deal with C&S in Oregon, this company is widely known by Teamsters locals across the country as the absolute worst operator in the grocery industry when it comes to unionized labor. Over the last twenty years, C&S systematically shut down numerous Teamsters-represented warehouses and moved the work to their nonunion sites, leading to thousands of lost Teamsters jobs. C&S closed warehouses despite offers of major contract concessions and local government assistance. Teamsters leaders and negotiators from these locals believe the company often negotiated in bad faith.

We have no idea what C&S management may be saying or promising about its plans in Oregon. That said, we have no reason to believe C&S would keep these stores operating over the long-term, honor union contracts, bargain in good faith, or respect their workers and the communities they serve.

We strongly believe any stores or warehouses bought by C&S from Kroger or Albertsons would be a disaster for Teamsters in the grocery industry, for customers, and for our grocery union brothers and sisters in the state of Oregon.

Fraternally,

Steve Konopa

Secretary-Treasurer

Teamsters Local 305