October 18, 2006: The grocery industry outsourcing trend continues with Kroger’s announcement that they will be transfering warehouse and delivery operations in Louisville to TransCorp Inc. and Zenith Logistics.

The new third-party operators quickly set the stage for their bargaining strategy by handing Local 89 members packets with job applications and info on wage and benefit cuts.

Neither Local 89 nor the Warehouse Division have taken steps to counter these scare tactics, or put in place the kind of campaign needed to protect the contract.

When members confronted Hoffa and Keegel, who were campaigning in Louisville in mid-October, the officers actually tried to blame Kroger’s outsourcing move on Ron Carey and Tom Leedham!

“That was over ten years ago, and a few contracts ago,” one member noted. “What have you done for us in the past decade?”