May 28, 2009

 

 

Dear Member:

 

            You now have a great opportunity to take a step up at work – a progressive step that will increase your pay, reduce your health insurance costs, provide no-cost wellness benefits and give you a voice in what happens to you at work.

 

            Your employer, the Kroger Company and the organization of Kroger employees, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 700, have an agreement that gives you the opportunity to sign up for coverage under a superior union contract that provides some of the best wages, health and pension benefits and working conditions in the entire retail food industry.

 

            You can unite with the more than 10,000 Kroger workers in the Indiana area – including workers just like you from Kroger-owned Scott’s and Owens.

 

            Scott’s employees have just made their choice to unite with other Kroger workers and are already working and living better.  Owens employees signed up almost a decade ago and have had years of better pay and benefits.

 

            You – just like Owens and Scott’s employees - will not be required to pay an Initiation fee to join Local 700.

 

            Now it is your time to raise your working, wage and benefit standards at Pay Less – and that’s what signing the UFCW Local 700 card is all about.

 

            Under the agreement between Kroger and UFCW Local 700, if you and a majority of your co-workers sign up, here’s what you will get right now:

 

·        Guaranteed schedule of regular wage increases – no guessing, no wondering what you’ll get or when you’ll get it.  Even Pay Less workers at the top of their current pay grade will get a raise.

·        Fully paid wellness benefits that cover dental exams, mammograms and other services that keep you healthy – you don’t pay a penny.

·        Savings – as much as $50 a week – in your medical insurance costs.  The UFCW Local 700 negotiated insurance costs only $22.50 per week for a comprehensive family coverage that includes vision and dental.  UFCW members pay between $2 per week to $22.50 per week depending on their coverage.

·        Representation – a real voice – in workplace issues.  If you have a problem or an issue, you have someone to back you up, to get the problem solved in a positive way.

·        Workers’ contract – a legally enforceable document that protects your rights – and your wages, benefits and working conditions.  The CEO’s and other executives have a contract – why not you and your co-workers?

 

Plus, you get the benefit of membership in one of the area’s largest unions, including such key programs as:

 

·        Membership discount card that gives you and your family cost-savings and reduced prices at everything from theme parks like Six Flags and Cedar Point to on-line shopping at stores like Kohl’s and Aeropostale.

·        Eligibility for you and your children to an extensive scholarship program that has helped thousands of members and their families to get advanced education and training.

·        Participation in events and outings from membership involvement in town hall meetings on health care reform to family fun at our annual Membership Appreciation Day at the baseball park.

 

You can be part of it.  Don’t be left out!  Get all the information you need and have all your questions answered simply and easily.

 

            Check our website at www.ufcw700.org. 

 

            E-mail me at President@ufcw700.org.

 

            Give us a call at 800-334-3619 or just answer your door.  UFCW Local 700 members from other Kroger-owned stores in the area have volunteered to go door-to-door to meet with you and explain what membership will mean to you.

 

            Remember, all it takes is your signature on a UFCW Local 700 card, and you will get all the benefits you are entitled to as a Kroger employee.  I look forward to working together with you.

 

                                                            In Unity,

 

 

 

                                                            Joe Chorpenning

                                                            President

 

  • I signed up for the Union because I knew that I would get regular raises and insurance. The vision insurance is great and I only have to pay $2.00 per week.
  • Glenna Essex
    Scotts Store 425
  • While I was in college, I was able to transfer to a store closer to my college, then transfer to a store closer to home when I finished my college education.
  • Alicia Adams
    Owens 836
  • Before we became union, I was classified as part time while working a full time schedule of hours, but when we became union and the contract was put in place, I was reclassified to full time because of the average number of hours I worked per week...
  • Justin Mills
    Scotts Store 412