The union, which represents more than 2,500 Lunds & Byerlys workers, plans to go on strike this week during the peak Christmas shopping season.
After voting to authorize a strike last week, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663 said Monday they will be on strike Thursday through Saturday ahead of the July 4 holiday next week.
The same union represents workers at many Cub stores in the Twin Cities who were planning to go on strike ahead of the Easter holiday before the parties reached a last-minute agreement. The union then dropped the unfair labor practices charges, allegations that are also fueling the threatened strike at Lunds & Byerlys.
The union said workers at Lunds & Byerlys were out of contract as of March 7 and are seeking industry-leading wages and equal pay. Their members also want the continuation of an employee-sponsored health insurance plan rather than employer-sponsored coverage.
“It makes a lot of us nervous because it’s losing control of our health care,” Marshall Everhart, deli manager at the Eden Prairie store, said ahead of an informational demonstration this month.
Healthcare has been a challenging issue as the company has been trying to work with the union to improve those benefits since 2017, said Casey Enevoldsen, vice president of employee experience at Lunds & Byerlys and the company’s chief negotiator.
No further talks are scheduled for this week.
“It’s quite unusual for our company,” said Enevoldsen. “We have long been able to work with various unions recognized in our company and come to a mutual agreement.”
Enevoldsen said Lunds & Byerlys offers industry-leading wages and has proposed a joint pay equity assessment committee. According to the union’s website, part-time workers make between $14.50 and $18 an hour. Traditional full-time workers make $27.13 an hour. The company has proposed an hourly pay increase of $2 to $4.50 over a two-year period, depending on the position.
Local 663 filed unfair labor practices charges against the company, alleging that it made coercive statements on employees exercising their right to participate in protected concerted activities and interviewed workers about union activity. The local official also said Lunds illegally monitored union activities and negotiated in bad faith.
“We deny that unfair labor practices took place,” said Enevoldsen.
Should workers go on strike, Lunds & Byerlys will put in place contingency plans to operate the 22 of the 28 stores affected.
The unionized stores are: in downtown Minneapolis; Northeast Minneapolis; Bloomington; Burnsville; chan hating; Eagan; Eden Prairie; Edina’s France Avenue location and 50th Street store; Glen Lake Minnetonka; Hwy 7 Minnetonka; golden valley; maple grove; Navarre; nokomis; Plymouth; Prior Lake; Richfield; Ridgedale; St Louis Park; Uptown and Wayzata.