As shelves empty in Pathmark and Super Fresh supermarkets
that are closing, some employees are clinging to a lifeboat that may save their
jobs, but cost others theirs.
And others are just out of luck.
Why are some cast adrift and others afloat?
It has to do with a union history that is as convoluted
as the structure of the stores' bankrupt parent company, A&P, formally
known as the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.
As A&P bought up chains over the years, unions that
represented those workers came along, each with different contract provisions
for bumping.
Some of those provisions fit in with court rulings in
A&P's bankruptcy. Others do not.
Which is why people such as store clerk Marion Riley, 66,
with more than 20 years' seniority, will be out of work Friday when the
Pathmark closes on Cottman Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia.
"We're becoming extinct like dinosaurs," Riley
said. "What are we going to do now? Work three jobs to survive?"
Meanwhile, her high-seniority counterparts at the Super
Fresh on Columbus Boulevard, also closing Friday, may get a seat on the
lifeboat - bumping to a store that is not closing.
Traditional supermarkets are under assault. "It's
like a supermarket squeeze," said Mark Lang, an assistant professor of
food marketing at St. Joseph's University's Haub School of Business, named for
the family that once owned A&P.
Lang said supermarkets are losing their share of the food
dollar, facing more competition from specialty stores such as Whole Foods and
from discounters, such as Walmart and Target.
A&P, he said, like others, "didn't close
stores." Now through bankruptcy and other means, it is shedding excess
store capacity.
When A&P, owned by Montvale-Para Holdings Inc., filed
for bankruptcy July 19, the Montvale, N.J., company said it would sell or shut
its 296 stores, starting by immediately closing 25, including seven here.
Of the 271 remaining stores, buyers have stepped in to
bid on 118. One bidder, Acme Markets Inc., wants to buy 76 of those stores,
including nine in the Philadelphia area.
The fate of A&P's remaining stores, including 17
local Pathmark, Super Fresh, and Food Basics stores, depends on whether they
attract buyers.
Bid deadline was Thursday with the auction to begin Oct.
1 in New York.
Of the seven slated to close, the Pathmark stores in
Berwyn, Franklin Mills, and Folsom are already out of business, as are the
Super Fresh groceries in Kennett Square and Skippack.
The Pathmark on Cottman Avenue, where Riley works, closes
Friday, as does the Super Fresh on Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia.
How the workers fared in these stores and in others at
risk depends on which union represented them.
Senior employees in stores represented by United Food and
Commercial Workers Local 1776 could, as part of their contract, bump
less-senior employees in A&P stores represented by Local 1776, as long as
they accept the pay and benefits of the less-senior workers.
Those workers can, in turn, bump others, with some at the
bottom losing their jobs.
Some of those stores are under consideration by Acme.
"We call them the lifeboat stores," said union
president Wendell Young 4th. "That's your best chance of survival."
Riley and her 60 coworkers were represented by Local 1034
of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Its contract with
A&P does not permit senior workers who bump employees with less seniority
to take a pay cut.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in New York had said
he would permit worker bumping as long as it does not add costs.
"We could have taken it to the membership, but I
don't think it would have passed," said Local 1034 business agent Bernard
Connolly.
Local 1034 represents 10 stores locally, with one,
Riley's Pathmark on Cottman Avenue, closing. The fate of the others depends on
whether bidders show up. None is under consideration by Acme.
"It's tough," Connolly said. Many stores, he
said, have not been invested in for years and will need work. "It's just a
bad situation for everyone."
Why are there different unions for different stores?
When Pathmark began in the late 1960s, RWDSU represented
its workers and continued to represent them when A&P bought Pathmark in
2007.
UFCW Local 1776 represented Acme & A&P workers in
Pennsylvania. When A&P emerged from an earlier bankruptcy in the 1980s, it
developed the Super Fresh chain, with UFCW Local 1776 representing workers.
In the last several years, some area Super Fresh stores
became Pathmark stores, but their workers remained in Local 1776.
Young said that decades of bankruptcies prompted his
union to build bumping flexibility into contracts.
Riley said she wished her union had done the same.
Meanwhile, she said, she's heartbroken that her store is
closing. "We have customers who are crying and hugging us," she said.
"We were a family. I loved this store."
Source: Philly.com
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