Why Is The UFCW Lying About Bashas'?

Because Bashas' members have not voted to support the UFCW, and employees of other stores who used to be UFCW members are leaving the union -- so the UFCW is losing millions of dollar a year in dues.  The UFCW is a business, and, like any business, it does not want to lose money.  Unlike companies like Bashas', however, that make money by selling good products to customers, the only way the UFCW can make money is by collecting money from the employees it purports to represent.  So, the UFCW is desperate to get new members, so it can collect more money to make up for the millions of dollars it has lost.  But the UFCW knows that Bashas' members have not voted for it to represent them, and it is pretty clear that the UFCW does not think our members ever will.  So, the only way to get to start collecting union dues from Bashas' members is if the Company agrees to let the UFCW represent its members without any secret vote by the members.  Because Bashas' refuses to let the UFCW take away our members' legal right to vote for or against union representation in a secret ballot election, the UFCW is engaged in a smear campaign against us.

You should know that there's another part of the story -- on top of the millions of dollars the UFCW has already lost, it is also afraid of losing even more members and more money because it feels that, unless it represents most supermarket employees, it will lose its bargaining power when it negotiates labor contracts, called collective bargaining agreements.  Here's how a former UFCW official, Douglas Dority, the International Director of Organizing, put it:

"When the unionized share of the grocery dollar declines in any geographic area, our [the union's] ability to produce at the bargaining table is diminished."

If the UFCW becomes even more ineffectual than it already is, even fewer employees will pay for the union's services, and the union will disappear.   That's why, when Mr. Dority talked about non-unionized grocery stores, he said:

"Over the long run, we must either reduce these chains' market share  . . . or we must put them out of business."

That's exactly what the UFCW told Bashas' it wanted to do.   And that means it wants to hurt Bashas' business or destroy the company completely -- even though that would hurt our members and cost some, or even all of them, their jobs.  It is hard to believe that the UFCW would even dare ask any of our members to support that union when its goal is to destroy Bashas' and the jobs of all Bashas' members.

But, it explains why the UFCW is attacking Bashas', doesn't it?