More than 2,000 grocery workers employed at Tony’s Fresh Market could unionize if they vote to be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881.
UFCW filed petitions for union elections with the National Labor Relations Board on Feb. 14. The local is seeking to represent about 2,400 grocery clerks, assistant managers and department managers at the 21 Tony’s grocery stores throughout Chicago and its suburbs.
UFCW Local 881 already represents thousands of grocery workers at Jewel-Osco and Mariano’s grocery stores throughout the Chicago area, though meat, fish and deli counter workers at Jewel-Osco are unionized with another UFCW local union, Local 1546. Local 881 has also made inroads at cannabis dispensaries and at the coffee chain La Colombe in recent years.
Tony’s Fresh Market, founded in Chicago in 1979, operates 21 grocery stores throughout the city and its suburbs, according to its website. UFCW Local 881 petitioned to represent workers at all 21 stores, according to labor board filings.
The union filed petitions two separate proposed bargaining units, one of which includes workers at Tony’s locations in Chicago and suburban Cook County and another that includes staffers at stores spread throughout the suburbs, including in Cook, DuPage and Lake counties.
If the grocery workers vote to unionize, they would form some of the largest new private-sector bargaining units the area has seen in the last couple of years.
Representatives for the union did not respond to requests for comment.
The union campaign comes just a few years after the grocer was acquired by funds managed by affiliates of New York-based private equity giant Apollo Global Management. The firm had already staked a claim in the Chicago-area grocery market, having put down $1.75 billion in Jewel-Osco parent Albertsons Companies Inc. in 2020.
Until the Apollo deal, Tony’s had been family-owned and operated since 1979, when Italian immigrants Tony Ingraffia and Domenico Gambino opened their first store at Fullerton and Central Park avenues in Chicago. Terms of the transaction with Apollo, which was announced in 2022, were not disclosed.
In a statement Monday, Frank Ingraffia, the company’s CEO and Tony’s son, said the company “[works] hard to create an exceptional environment for our employees to thrive.”
“We prioritize competitive wages, benefits, and a direct dialogue with our Team Members, which we believe provides the best outcome for all stakeholders,” Ingraffia said.
