an independent rank and file shop floor newsletter

The Kroger Company is the largest supermarket chain in the country and the fourth largest employer in the Fortune 500. The reason for Kroger’s success is because of our labor and dedication to making sure that our communities have fresh food stocked on their shelves every single day. We are the workers that bag the groceries, push the carts, stock the shelves, operate the deli, unload the trucks, bake the bread, fill prescriptions, and cut the meat. We are the workers that produce the value for the Kroger Company.

What have we gotten in return? Low wages, weak contracts, and poor conditions. Our fellow workers at numerous stores across the country are experiencing the same things. High turnover, lots of stress, and very little hope for our future.

It’s clear that as workers we can't rely on the government and certainly not on the good will of Kroger itself to determine our future and make sure our interests are represented in the workplace. The company only cares about the bottom line. The government is dominated by the rich and powerful who take money from the very companies we are fighting against. Without rank and file energy, our union leaders don’t have the independent power to fight and win.

Because rank and file power on the shop floor is so weak, the company is able to play hardball and negotiate aggressively at our stores and play politics with our livelihoods. Our union’s power, and union leader power, is dependent on our degree of unity, consciousness of our shared struggles as fellow workers, and most importantly, our independent shop floor organization. The old adage of “WE ARE THE UNION” rings true.

Union leaders can’t create pressure out of nowhere. Whatever demands leaders put forward, the first question the company asks itself is “Do they have enough power to force us?” If not, why should they take those demands seriously? 

Sometimes our coworkers complain that the union is too weak or that the leadership doesn’t do enough for us. But unions are not service companies and we are not customers. Unions are fighting organizations and we are on the front lines of that fight every day.

The truth is, the real problem we face is ourselves.

Historically, the improvements the labor movement has won for the lives of working people have always been built from the bottom up by the struggle of rank and file workers like us. No one will fight for us; we have to fight for ourselves and for each other.

We live in an era of deep cynicism that often crosses over into despair and hopelessness. It is easy to feel discouraged about the state of our union—that it is “too weak to be effective” or that leadership feels distant and disconnected. We hear you. 

But hope doesn’t fall from the sky like manna from heaven; it is built like everything else, through the hard work and determination of working class people like us. The union won’t change until the rank and file changes. The union won’t be invigorated until the rank and file is invigorated. The only real hope we can have is in each other as fellow workers, on the shop floor, to step up and take personal responsibility for the strength of our own union. 

We hope this newsletter helps our union brothers and sisters connect all the different frustrations and struggles we each face every day, so we can share, discuss, and critically engage in the process of improving our lives and our workplace. We also hope that our union brothers and sisters who would like to join in this process of rank and file revitalization can use this newsletter to form clubs that can meet on break or after work to strategize on our common project. By working together, we can empower the leaders who want to fight back and expose and replace the ones who don’t. No one is coming to save us and nothing will change for the better until rank and file workers are organized enough to force the company to stop sacrificing our lives for the sake of their profits.