Drivers at a Kroger fulfillment center in Forest Park are turning up the heat in labor negotiations by voting to authorize a strike, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union.
The 30 drivers at the facility in Clayton County voted last year to join the Teamsters and have been negotiating for a contract ever since.
The union said this week the drivers “voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike in response to the company’s repeated refusal to negotiate a fair agreement.”
Taking a strike authorization vote is a common tactic by labor unions to gain more leverage when progress in contract talks stalls, but it does not necessarily mean a strike is planned. The Teamsters said in a news release that Kroger has “slow-walked” negotiations and “failed to offer a contract that meets basic standards.”
Kroger did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Teamsters vote.
The union is seeking better wages and benefits and “enforceable workplace protections,” according to Teamsters spokesman Colin McCullough.
“This company can more than afford what we’re asking for,” according to a written statement from Marion Jackson, a Kroger driver and shop steward for Teamsters Local 528, which represents workers at the facility. “We are ready to strike if Kroger doesn’t start taking our demands seriously.” The union did not announce a time frame for the ultimatum.
Cincinnati-based Kroger, which has nearly 420,000 employees across the company, reported an operating profit of $3.8 billion for 2024.
The union represents the drivers at the fulfillment center but does not represent the workers inside the facility.
The drivers at the Kroger facility in Forest Park were the second unit of Kroger fulfillment center drivers to join the Teamsters union, after a group of more than 289 drivers in Romulus, Michigan, voted to unionize last May.
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