KROGER ALBERTSONS MERGER UPDATE

December 11, 2024

Colorado Attorney General Weiser’s Team Has

 Done Excellent Job in Trial to Stop Kroger/Albertsons Merger Proposal

 UFCW LOCALS’ STOP THE MERGER COALITION APPLAUDS ALBERTSONS’ DECISION TO TERMINATE MERGER TRANSACTION WITH KROGER

 The Coalition Calls on Both Companies to Use Their Unspent Billions to Invest in Workers, Customers and Stores

 Denver, CO (December 11, 2024) – Today, UFCW local unions representing more than 100,000 grocery store employees working at Albertsons and Kroger-owned stores in 14 states and the District of Columbia released the following statement regarding Albertson’s decision to terminate their proposed merger with Kroger:

“Following yesterday’s court rulings blocking the proposed Kroger and Albertsons mega-merger, we welcome Albertsons’ decision to terminate the merger transaction, meaning there will be no further court appeals seeking to complete the merger. We encourage the leaders of both Kroger and Albertsons to invest resources in their stores by investing in adequate staffing so customers are better served and workers can safely and effectively operate the stores and stock the shelves. These investments will result in higher sales and improved satisfaction by shoppers and employees alike.” 

“Now is not the time to waste billions on share buybacks or expanded dividends to Wall Street investors. Albertsons already wasted $4 billion in their premature, massive payout to wealthy shareholders back in January of 2023 when the merger transaction began. Meanwhile, Kroger appears to have wasted more than $1 billion on costs associated with the failed merger transaction itself. Now is the time for Kroger and Albertsons executives to honor their promises to consumers and workers under oath during the trials by investing in lower prices, higher wages, and other investments to improve competitiveness.” 

“For over 100,000 Kroger and Albertsons workers across the Western United States represented by UFCW locals 7, 324, 770, 1564, and 3000 who are in the midst or about to start negotiating collective bargaining agreements, these billions of dollars will go a long way in resolving problems around staffing, safety, and low wages. It’s also money that could be well spent on cutting prices for customers who have suffered from price gouging over the last several years. This kind of strategic investment is one of the necessary steps to address the underlying inequities and injustices in our nation’s food supply system.”

Meanwhile, here in Colorado, union grocery workers are at the bargaining table with King Soopers, City Market, Safeway, and Albertsons, as the contract negotiated at the conclusion of the 2022 strike is set to expire in early January 2025. UFCW Local 7 President, Kim Cordova, stated “Now that the proposed anti-competitive merger is behind us, it’s time for the companies to get serious about fixing the problems that have developed while executives were busy wasting money on the merger. Understaffing within the stores is rampant, with too few workers and too few hours, which leads to bare shelves and poor customer service. At the same time, wages and benefits have failed to keep pace with inflation, threatening the stability of our communities. Both of these companies are flush with cash, and now is the time for them to invest seriously in the stores, by increasing staffing, raising wages, and lowering prices.”

December 10, 2024

UFCW LOCALS’ STOP THE MERGER COALITION REACTS TO

 FEDERAL JUDGE GRANTING PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION TO BLOCK KROGER AND ALBERTSONS’ PROPOSED MEGA-MERGER

 King County Washington State Court Judge Also Issues Ruling

Blocking the Proposed Mega-Merger

BIG WIN FOR WORKERS!

After our 2-year long effort to halt the proposed mega-merger of Kroger and Albertsons because of the threat it poses to workers and our customers, today we celebrate the Federal Trade Commission's and the Washington State Attorney General’s successful lawsuit to halt the merger. These decisions are a huge win for tens of thousands of grocery store workers and millions of customers across the nation. 

“It’s time for these grocery store companies to get back to what matters most – investing in and hiring more workers to address staffing shortages, improving our stores and the customer experience, and serving our communities,” said Carol McMillian.

“We want to show our appreciation to the Federal Trade Commission, and the Attorneys General from Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wyoming who joined the Commission’s federal lawsuit, for taking this case on. We also want to applaud the thousands of unionized workers and shoppers and community organizations who have stood up time and again, and said ‘No Grocery Merger’ since October of 2022,” stated UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova.

This is an important legal win for consumers who would have seen one of the largest mergers in history that threatened monopoly or near monopoly in many markets and potential store closures in communities already grappling with food access. It is also a legal win for unionized workers to protect our right to collective bargaining by not allowing a single employer to take away the negotiation leverage of the workers if the two largest unionized retail grocery chains had been allowed to consolidate into one.

What’s Next:

As for the federal case, this could be the end of the debate and the companies could do the right thing and drop this proposal that was a bad idea even before they announced it two years ago. That said, the companies could decide to appeal this decision. Additionally, we are also awaiting the decision from a lawsuit filed in the state of Colorado. 

You, the workers in the stores, have been central to the opposition of the proposed merger, took action, spoke out, and shared your concerns. Our Stop the Merger Coalition of UFCW locals 7, 324, 400, 770, 1564 and 3000 have been leading this fight for 24 months and helped build the national coalition that includes over 100 local, regional and national organizations.

We Continue Our Fight Against the Kroger/Albertsons Merger as the FTC Trial Enters Final Week, More Trials to Follow

(Photo credit – Dominick Ojeda, UFCW 3000)

“Enough is enough. We can no longer stand by and allow corporate greed that puts profit before people. Our workers, our communities and our customers deserve better.”  – Carol McMillian, UFCW Local 7R member (far left in image above)  and a bakery manager at Kroger-owned King Soopers in Colorado was one of several speakers at out Stop the Merger Press Conference on August 26, 2024 on the courthouse steps outside the federal court in Portland, OR, just before the 1st day of the trial.

Dear grocery store members,

Since the trial of the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit to stop the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons began on August 26, workers have been at the courthouse, talking to the media, and talking to customers about how damaging this would be for workers, customers, and our communities. 

We’ve been doing this work for nearly two years and we’ll continue to do it until we finally put a stop to this disastrous merger.

The federal court case is expected to conclude on Tuesday, September 17, and the judge could make a decision on whether or not to approve the FTC’s request for what is called a “Preliminary Injunction” as early as the first week of October. If the injunction is granted, the merger would be put on hold until after a full court case on the merits of the merger is done. 

Meanwhile, on Monday, September 16, the Washington State Attorney General’s lawsuit to block the merger will begin its trial in Seattle. The Colorado Attorney General’s lawsuit to block the merger is scheduled to start on September 30.

The outspoken work of grocery store members and our community partners, as well as many enforcement agencies like the FTC and Attorneys General, have all been central to the successful efforts so far to stop the proposed mega-merger of Kroger and Albertsons.

Kroger’s Q2 Earnings Call

Kroger held its 2nd Quarter Earnings call on Thursday, September 12, and it showed what we’ve been saying all along: Kroger is doing just fine, and doesn’t need this merger to compete. Same store sales were up 1.2% (higher than expected) and the company pointed to higher online sales and increased loyalty households as drivers of stronger sales and growing private label brands as a driver of increased profitability. 

Notably, these areas—ecommerce capacity, customer loyalty and private label manufacturing—are ones that C&S Wholesale Grocery (the proposed buyer of 579 divested stores if a merger were allowed) lacks, underscoring concerns that C&S would not be able to operate those stores in a sustainable way. Kroger also discussed strong profits in the pharmacy sector and acknowledged pharmacies as a leading cause of loyalty. We’ve pointed out time and time again that C&S has little to no experience managing pharmacies that are a lifeline to our communities.

Also of note, company officials claimed that shrink (the loss from theft or other causes) has been improving, though is still elevated, and that OSHA incident rates are currently at record lows. Members, who actually work in the stores, paint a very different picture of understaffed stores with high rates of shoplifting rates and significant health and safety risks.

In the News

UFCW Locals 7, 324, 400, 770, 1564, and 3000 have held press conferences, store actions, webinars and interviews to raise our concerns to the public through more than a thousand media stories from coast to coast since the very first day Kroger and Albertsons announced their proposed plan to merger.  Time and again grocery store workers, sharing their experiences, have proven to be a critical part of those news stories. Most recently, several stories around the FTC trial have been noteworthy:

You can find more of the most recent news coverage on the Stop the Merger website news page here.

Protecting the jobs and collective bargaining strength of union workers and keeping choice and price competition for our customers are key reasons for our long-standing and loud opposition to the proposed merger.

We recently launched a Stop the Merger Customer Petition to continue to build public support that has already garnered thousands of signatures! Please help spread the word about our petition by sharing www.nogrocerymerger.com/petition.

We hear from customers all over the country that Kroger and Albertsons’ proposed mega-merger threatens our communities with store closures, food and pharmacy deserts, thousands of laid-off unionized grocery store workers, and higher prices. 

You can take action by encouraging your organizational members, family members, fellow shoppers, friends, and others in the community to sign the petition to show Kroger and Albertson that they are opposed to this disastrous proposal.

Sign and share the petition at nogrocerymerger.com/petition

  

In Solidarity,

The Stop the Merger Coalition