Grocery Teamsters are using contract campaigns to win strong contracts and rebuild union power.

Grocery Teamsters are taking a page from the UPS contract campaign playbook to mobilize members and win better contracts.

One champion of the new approach is Indiana Local 135, a state-wide local of 13,000 members, including roughly 1,500 Teamsters in the grocery industry.

In the past, grocery contracts in Local 135 were negotiated behind closed doors, with little to no involvement from members.

At Kroger, Local 135 officials signed a 12-year contract in 2012, just before Indiana’s “right-to-work” law took effect.

The goal behind the long contract was to try to keep Kroger a closed shop for as long as possible. But it came at a steep price. Warehouse management changed three times in the 12 years, bringing new problems each time.

In 2022, Local 135 members voted for new leadership and a new direction.

Dustin Roach and his Members First team came to office determined to increase the union’s bargaining leverage and win better contracts by mobilizing the members.

That has meant taking the contract campaign model most commonly associated with UPS and putting it to work for members in every industry.

At the beginning of each year, Local 135 hosts a Contract Campaign Summit where members attend contract campaign trainings and strategy sessions.

This year, Teamsters from Kroger’s refrigerated warehouse in Shelbyville turned out in force. So did members from Kroger’s dry goods warehouse, operated by Zenith. Then both groups got to work.

Building Unity

In Shelbyville, members had to build unity among 500 warehouse Teamsters who speak five different languages on three shifts, each with
staggered start times.

To start, shop stewards used bargaining surveys to talk Teamster–to-Teamster, identify common issues, build unity around key demands, and prepare members to get involved.

To reach everyone working on a given day, stewards and contract campaign activists had to be there from 4:30 to 7 a.m., then again from 12 to 4 p.m., then once more from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m.

Stewards and contract campaign volunteers did this on multiple days to catch anyone who was off.

Taking Action

In April, members took their first action—wearing buttons with the message “Together for a strong contract” in all languages spoken in the warehouse—English, Spanish, Burmese, Chin, and Creole.

With negotiations starting right after Memorial Day weekend, contract campaign organizers wanted to send management a message that bargaining would not be business as usual.

On a typical day, most workers get to the warehouse early to change into a snowsuit, line up to check out scanners and headsets, and to get dibs on a decent forklift. Then they clock in for the shift meeting—ready to work as soon as it’s over.

But for Memorial Day weekend, members agreed that instead of getting their equipment before punching in, they would wait until after pre-shift and get their equipment after they punched in.

With roughly 500 members on six different start times and several languages spoken in the warehouse, communication was key if the action was going to be successful.

“Our warehouse is very diverse,” said Chief Steward Vince Wilkes. The warehouse workforce includes English-speakers from the U.S.; Spanish-speakers from Mexico and elsewhere; immigrants from Myanmar who speak Burmese or Chin; and Haitian-Creole-speakers.

“We held parking lot meetings before our job action to make sure no matter what language you speak, we were all in this together,” Wilkes said.

To make sure the message got out, stewards worked with bilingual members at every start time to communicate across all the languages spoken. “Members who haven’t really been active in the union before asked ‘How can I help?’” said shop steward Mario Martinez.

“When bilingual members saw we were having a hard time communicating, they stepped up to help with translation and wanted to be a part of it.”

To translate into Chin, Martinez turned to “a guy we call Tupac,” because in Burma he learned English by listening to the rapper Tupac Shakur. To translate into Burmese, “There’s a guy we call Rockstar, because he plays electric guitar in the church.”

It worked. “Management was scrambling around because almost every single person waited until they were on the clock to come get their equipment,” said shop steward Monika Spears.

Open Bargaining

When negotiations started, the union took a new approach called open bargaining. All members were welcome to observe negotiations. Dozens attended.

When management stalled, members escalated. They voted by 99 percent to authorize a strike.

Days before expiration, Kroger management faced a packed house of more than 150 members in negotiations.

With a strike threat looming, management caved. Members won wage increases of four dollars and will be back at the table to bargain for more in just 32 months. The new contract goes from the longest to the shortest Kroger agreement in the Teamsters.

The contract also restored porter jobs that had been contracted out, won protections against further subcontracting, and secured the right to honor picket lines.

“We’ve seen how Teamsters at US Foods and Sysco are winning strikes by extending picket lines and coordinating bargaining,” said Local 135 Business Agent Robert Doolin. “We made picket line solidarity a priority in bargaining because we know that will have a huge payoff in the future.”

As we go to press, Zenith Teamsters who deliver dry goods for Kroger are going down to the wire with their own contract campaign.

“We’re using the Kroger playbook to win at Zenith,” says Dave Morton, the Chief Steward in Indianapolis. “We organized huge member turnout with matching t-shirts for open bargaining and voted 97.52 percent to authorize a strike.”