CINCINNATI — Local Kroger employees are about to get a pay boost, thanks to a rarely used contract maneuver by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 75.
UFCW members are expected to ratify a contract modification Sunday that will bring 50-cent hourly raises to 11,000 clerks and department heads in its Cincinnati and Dayton stores.
The 50-cent bump is on top of already scheduled pay raises required by UFCW’s existing contract. Kroger rarely adjusts wages in the middle of a contract, but UFCW President Kevin Garvey got the company to consider it after the union agreed to help the company test a new way to sell fresh-cut fruit in eight local stores.
“I said, ‘Well, you’d like to try this program, I’d like to have a wage re-opener at the end of this program.’ And they said, ‘We’ll do that.’ So, here we are,” Garvey said. “It worked out fantastic. It was a struggle though. It really was.”
Garvey estimates the pay hike will cost the company about $11 million annually. That’s on top of the roughly $11 million it was already scheduled to pay as part of an existing contract that expires in three years.
“Every day, we see our associates work hard to give back to our customers and each other,” said Ann Reed, Cincinnati/Dayton division president. “These wage increases allow us to continue investing in our associates and remain a leader in overall compensation packages.”
Garvey said the union has tried many times in the last 30 years to get Kroger to re-open talks on wages, but he was more eager to do it this year because of high inflation.
“It really has an adverse impact on their take-home pay,” Garvey said.
He found his opportunity in a fresh-cut produce program that Kroger launched in 2022, using outside vendors at its Cincinnati Fresh Center in Blue Ash. The company tested single-serve containers of fresh-cut fruit in eight local stores. The offering did well enough to convince Kroger to expand it. To better control costs, Garvey said the company wanted store employees to process the fresh-cut produce.
Garvey is hoping the switch means more hours for UFCW members – in addition to the 50-cent pay hike.
“It’s huge. I mean, that’s money outside of the original contract,” said Mike Dillard, a meat department manager in Kroger’s Highland Heights store.
Dillard said the contract change will double the raise he was expecting, adding about $160 to his monthly paycheck.
“In the retail world, a 50 cents per hour jump is a lot,” Dillard said. “I can’t buy a new house with it. But I can sleep better at night, maybe buy a few more items.”
Garvey, meantime, is looking for new ways to trigger a wage re-opener next year.
“This is the only time that we’ve been able to generate additional money for our members. But no, I’m not opposed to going back in January of ’24 and trying again,” he said.
