Over the next three days, 2,400 cashiers, deli clerks, meat cutters, bakery workers, pastry decorators, florists and other grocery store staffers will decide whether Tony’s Fresh Market, the grocery chain founded by Italian immigrants in Logan Square and sold to private equity three years ago, will become a union shop.
Tony’s workers from Joliet to Waukegan will cast their votes Tuesday through Thursday in an election held by the National Labor Relations Board. The union that hopes to represent the workers is the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881, which already represents thousands of grocery workers at Mariano’s and Jewel-Osco grocery stores throughout the Chicago area.
A majority of workers at Tony’s 21 supermarkets must vote “yes” to secure a win for the union. The union election will be among the largest held in the American private sector so far this year. If the Tony’s workers vote to unionize, their fledgling bargaining unit could be the largest certified by the labor board this year, according to agency records.
Tony’s workers who support the union have said they hope it could help them secure higher pay and better benefits.
Maria Molina, who works in the floral shop and as a cashier at Tony’s in suburban Prospect Heights, said she makes $18.70 an hour after nine years with the company.
“We’re doing all of this to have a better standard of living,” said Molina, who supports the union, in an interview with the Tribune in Spanish.
Before working at Tony’s, Molina had a union job at Dominick’s, where, she said, she had benefits such as sick days, time and a half pay for working Sundays and affordable insurance, which she attributes to saving her a lot of money when she was hospitalized for an infection.
And around the time Dominick’s shuttered in 2013, Molina said, she was making $15.25 an hour — the equivalent of $20.88 in today’s dollars, and more than she makes at Tony’s now.
Most of her colleagues, she said, don’t have health insurance through Tony’s because it’s too expensive. For now, she has insurance through her husband, but is expecting to go without it once he stops working in May because his company is moving out of state.
In a statement, Tony’s said the company “take(s) great pride in fostering a supportive environment where our team members can thrive, with competitive wages, strong benefits packages, and direct and open communication at the core of our efforts.”
The company did not respond to a question about specific starting and average wages for grocery workers. It said it offered benefits including health care, 401(k) plans and paid vacation time, and said it provided premium pay for work during the holiday season.
Tony’s, which was founded by Tony Ingraffia and Domenico Gambino in 1979, was acquired by funds managed by New York based private equity giant Apollo Global Management three years ago.
In the leadup to the election, UFCW has accused Tony’s of trying to bust the union vote, including by firing a union supporter, interrogating workers about their support for the union, and threatening workers by telling them that the union will ask for their immigration documents. The union filed charges with the NLRB alleging the company has violated federal labor law, which the company denies.
“Suddenly,” the union said in a news release last week, “the Company has been hosting pizza parties, offering coupons, and special discounts to workers in an obvious last-ditch effort to buy loyalty before the election.”
In a statement, Tony’s said it “values its team members and respects their right to consider union representation, and any claims suggesting otherwise are false.”
The company said it follows the law, saying specifically that it had not fired any workers because of their union activity. Tony’s said that company leaders and store managers receive training to ensure they comply with labor laws and regulations.
If the Tony’s workers vote to join UFCW, their union would be among the largest new bargaining units the Chicago area has seen in recent years.
Most union elections are measured “in the tens or hundreds of workers, not thousands,” said Johnnie Kallas, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations. “This is a very important election,” he said.
Though the Chicago area, like much of the rest of the country, has seen an increase in new unions over the last several years, some of that organizing has taken place in smaller shops, such as cafes that sometimes have fewer than two dozen workers. UFCW itself has taken to organizing smaller units, including some local cannabis dispensaries.
But even a large bid like the Tony’s election — if the union can notch a win — would not be enough to make a dent in the country’s overall union membership rate, which hit a record low of just under 10% last year, despite high profile union wins and strong public support for unions. The issue of how to reverse a union membership rate that has fallen precipitously since a high of 20% in the early 1980s, when the government first started keeping track, has long vexed labor leaders and organizers.
To Tony’s and its workers, of course, the results of the week’s election matter a great deal.
At the Tony’s in Prospect Heights, Molina does all the work to keep the flower shop running, she said, from the dirtiest work to the most pleasant. She does inventory, takes out the trash and creates the floral arrangements that Tony’s sells.
This week, Molina has another task to add to her list: casting a vote.
