Brainerd/Baxter Cub Foods, Super One Foods Baxter/Crosby and Pequot Lakes SuperValu union members set to strike during Christmas over rights violated
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2023
Brainerd, MN –Today, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663, together representing more than 650 essential grocery workers at five Brainerd Lakes area union grocery stores announced their intentions to hold a four day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike from December 22-25, 2023.
Workers at Quisberg’s Cub Foods in Brainerd and Baxter, Pequot Lakes SuperValu, and Miner’s Super One Foods in Baxter and Crosby have had their rights repeatedly violated and they overwhelmingly voted last week to authorize the union bargaining committee to call for an ULP strike if needed.
UFCW Local 663’s member bargaining committee released the following statement on YouTube:
“Last week, our coworkers stood together and demonstrated our power as a union and voted to authorize a strike. Quisberg’s and Miner’s have engaged in unfair labor practices meant to stop us from exercising our rights, despite our tireless efforts to serve customers every day.
We are calling for an Unfair Labor Practices strike to be held from December 22 through Christmas at Cub Foods Brainerd and Baxter, Super One in Baxter and Crosby, and Pequot Lakes SuperValu.
We keep Cub Foods, Super One and SuperValu running through the busy holiday seasons, and customers notice. We are proud of the communities we serve.
The decision to call a strike is not an easy one to make. It is always a last resort. However we have to stand up for our rights as essential workers.
We continue to bargain in good faith for a contract that reflects our hard work and a workplace that honors the rights we have.”
The union bargaining committee welcomes future bargaining dates with the employers.
Watch the video on YouTube here.
BACKGROUND:
Map of Locations Affected by ULP Strike
UFCW Local 663 members have experienced interrogation, surveillance, and intimidation from their employers as they exercised their rights to participate in protected concerted activity.
United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663 union members at Cub Foods, SuperValu and Super One Foods have been working without a collective bargaining agreement since December 3.
In the latest round of contract negotiations, members are fighting for better wages and benefits to build a better life at work and better serve the communities that rely on them. Members hope to come to a tentative agreement with the companies soon.
Earlier this year, thousands of metro area UFCW Local 663 members at UNFI Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski’s Markets, and Seward Community Co-op voted to authorize Unfair Labor Practice strikes and were able to restore their rights on the job, and come to tentative agreements on their Union contracts. The earliest ULP strike was set to start before the busy Easter weekend, and was averted just hours before it was slated to start.
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UFCW Local 663 represents more than 17,000 hard-working essential retail, meat packing and processing, food preparation and manufacturing, healthcare, and other workers in Minnesota. We strive to improve the lives of our members and of all working families by fighting for economic, political, and social justice in our workplaces and communities. UFCW Local 663 is part of the 1.3 million-member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
Contact: Jessica Hayssen, 651-261-8559