Elected Leaders Stand with Grocery Workers! Open letter to Ron Sargent, Kroger Interim Chief Executive Officer

September 1, 2025 
Ron Sargent 
Interim Chief Executive Officer 
Chairman of the Board 
The Kroger Company 
1014 Vine Street 
Cincinnati, OH 45202-1100  

Dear Mr. Sargent, 

On Labor Day, a day set aside to honor the contributions of working people, we are writing to express our deep concern and opposition to your company’s announced closure of four Fred Meyer stores in the Puget Sound region — in Lake City (Seattle), Everett, Kent, and Redmond. These closures will result in the loss of nearly 700 union jobs and will leave working-class communities with fewer options for affordable groceries, worsening food insecurity. 

You have attempted to justify these closures by pointing to retail theft. The facts tell a different story. Retail theft has actually declined at the impacted stores.  

The real reasons for these closures derive from your corporate choices: years of underinvestment in stores, chronic understaffing, and funneling billions of dollars to Wall Street instead of reinvesting in workers and communities.  

Between 2018 and 2022 alone, you spent $9.2 billion on stock buybacks and dividends, and just last year you announced another $7.5 billion buyback. At the same time, you cut labor hours by more than 14% per store since 2019, creating a 21% staffing shortfall across your operations. 

We cannot accept the narrative that these closures are inevitable. They are the result of your deliberate corporate strategy that puts short-term payouts to investors over the long-term stability of workers, shoppers, and our neighborhoods. Abandoning working-class communities in this way is unacceptable. 

We stand with the nearly 700 workers whose jobs are on the line and the thousands of families who will lose access to essential groceries. As elected leaders, we will not sit idly by while you make decisions that destabilize our communities. 

We call on you to: 

• Halt the announced store closures and immediately engage with workers, community leaders, and local governments about alternatives. 

• Reinvest in staffing, safety, and store upkeep instead of funneling billions into Wall Street. 

• Release store-level data so the public can understand the true drivers behind these decisions. 

Our communities deserve better than to be abandoned by one of the nation’s largest and most profitable grocery corporations. On this Labor Day, we urge you to reverse course and put people before profits. 

Sincerely, 

King County Council 

Council President Girmay Zahilay  
Councilmember Claudia Balducci  
Councilmember Rod Dembowski 
Councilmember Jorge Barón  
Councilmember Sarah Perry 
Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda  

Snohomish County Council  

Councilmember Megan Dunn  
Councilmember Sam Low 

Lake City  

State Senator Javier Valdez (LD 46)
Rep. Gerry Pollett (LD 46) 
Rep. Darya Farivar (LD 46)  
Seattle City Councilmember Debora Juarez 
Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck
Seattle School Board Member Joe Mizrahi 

Kent 

Kent Councilmember Satwinder Kaur 
Rep. Chris Stearns (LD 47) 
Rep. Debra Entenman (LD 47) 
Public Hospital District #1 Commissioner Dustin Lambro 

Redmond  

Redmond City Council President Vanessa Kritzker 
Redmond City Council VP Jessica Forsythe 
Redmond City Councilmember & State Rep. Osman Salahuddin (LD 48) 

Everett 

Everett Councilmember Paula Rhyne   
Everett Councilmember Don Schwab
Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin 
Everett Councilmember & State Rep. Mary Fosse (LD 38)  
Sen. June Robinson (LD 38) 
Rep. Julio Cortes (LD 48) 

UFCW 3000 Launches Fresh Food for All Campaign, Endorses Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor

UFCW 3000, Washington State’s largest labor union, proudly endorses Katie Wilson for Mayor of Seattle.

“Our members stock the shelves, staff the hospitals, and serve every neighborhood in this city,” UFCW Executive Board Member and Ballard QFC Cashier Amy Dayley Angell, “Katie Wilson has marched with us on the picket line and fought off corporate bullies to raise wages for all working people, so we know she’s ready to take on the big battles to make Seattle affordable for everyone.”

Wilson shares our goal of building an affordable city where people can live near their workplaces without breaking the bank and get where they need to go quickly and reliably.

We also stand with Wilson in the effort to create a fairer tax code, one that balances more of the load on wealthy corporations rather than working-class people.

And in the wake of four scheduled Fred Meyer closures in our region, we’re glad to know that the next mayor of Seattle stands with us as we launch our Fresh Food for All campaign, which will make food deserts bloom with fresh, affordable produce and prevent grocery giants from stomping all over our communities.

A Food Justice Vision for Seattle

• Mass Layoff Protections – Seattle should set the standard for worker justice. We must require 90 days’ notice for mass layoffs and severance pay for displaced workers.

• Grocery-Oriented Development Zones (GODZ) – Pair new workforce housing with full-service grocery stores, reserving some units for workers who rely on SNAP/WIC.

• Public-Option Grocery Stores – Food deserts aren’t a natural phenomenon. They occur when giant grocery corporations abandon working-class communities in search of higher profits. To protect our neighborhoods, Seattle should support public-private partnership grocery stores to keep food affordable and accessible for all.

• Ban Surge and Surveillance Pricing – No more secret algorithms that jack up food prices in real time. Families deserve stable grocery bills, not digital discrimination.

• Ban Digital-Only Coupons – Discounts shouldn’t be locked behind smartphones, inaccessible to the elderly and low-income shoppers.

We’re urging every elected official to work with us to pass these common-sense protections for workers and communities.

And this November, we’re urging every Seattle voter to stand with us and elect Katie Wilson as our next Mayor.

Fred Meyer Closure FAQ, Tele-Town Hall Scheduled for Thursday

Dear Grocery Store Workers,

This week Kroger announced plans to close four Fred Meyer stores in the Puget Sound region, including stores in Everett, Kent, Lake City, and Redmond.

Our members built a fighting union exactly for moments like this one. Our size and strength give us the power to push back against giant corporations like Kroger and Albertsons when they try to disrupt our lives and communities with store closures.

To that end, in the coming days our union bargaining team will sit across the table with Kroger with a list of demands to ensure fairness during this process.

In the meantime, below you'll find frequently asked questions about store closures, along with actions we plan to take to fight back against this corporate greed.

Give them a read, get involved, and get in touch with your union rep if you have any other questions >>

STORE CLOSURE FAQ

Is the company obligated to place us at another store?

All of our grocery contracts ensure that the company must offer workers placement in other nearby stores based on seniority following a closure.

Where can I find the seniority language in our contract?

• Fred Meyer Grocery: Article 3

• Fred Meyer General Merch: Article 5

• Fred Meyer Meat: Article 11

If I move to another store, do I keep my same position?

The move to All Purpose Clerk (APC) for grocery and general merchandise workers gives members the opportunity to flex toward departments other than their home one to pick up hours.

Do these closures impact my retirement benefits?

Generally, our pension plan requires you to work for five years before you can draw on the pension during retirement. If you have not worked for five years, then you will not receive pension benefits when you retire. For specific questions, please contact Sound Retirement Trust at (206) 282-4500.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Read up: To learn more background information on these closures, read our union's press releases.
Release 1 >> Release 2 >>

Speak up: UFCW 3000 will host a 30-minute telephone town hall with all grocery store members at 4:30 PM on Thursday, August 21. We'll be answering any questions you have about these closures. Call in using this number: 844-227-7556. If you join a few minutes late, then just input the Meeting ID: 8789.

Stand up: Our union is currently in the process of planning ways to work with our state and local elected officials to prioritize policies that protect workers, eliminate food deserts, and ensure affordable food for all. Get involved in the process by emailing politics@ufcw3000.org and expressing your interest.

Telephone Town Hall

Thursday, August 21
4:30 PM
Call-in Number: 844-227-7556
Meeting ID: 8789

Metropolitan Market - Continuing Negotiations for What We Deserve

It's been a month since we've been at the table to continue our negotiations with Metropolitan Market. We will continue standing together to win what we deserve and keep to our timeline for success. Our bargaining team knows the issues key to our campaign are:

• Stable and guaranteed hours because our bills don't change with the grocery seasons

• Investments in development opportunities so we can grow and help train new hires

• Meaningful wage increases to keep up with the cost of living

And we have a plan to win:

• Wear your Union button at work: More Staff | More Smiles!

• Start talking to your coworkers about joining a leaflet action at your store

• Join our next all member meeting on August 26 at 6:30 PM

Want to read more about what's on the bargaining table?

Check it out >>

All Member Meeting
Tuesday, August 26
6:30 PM

Bargaining Team:Kelly Shaffer, Uptown (Bakery); Maggie Baze, Mercer Island (Prepared Foods); Bill Graves, Crown Hill (Maintenance); Tori Nakamatsu-Figaroa, Uptown (Cake); Dan Howes, Crown Hill (Produce); Felicity Hoffman, Sand Point (Bakery)

PRESS RELEASE: Kroger to Close Two Additional Fred Meyer Stores in Puget Sound Region

*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

August 19, 2025
Kroger to Close Two Additional Fred Meyer Stores in Puget Sound Region
Contact: Rich Smith, UFCW 3000 Communications Director
rsmith@ufcw3000.org / 816-289-4520

No, this is not the same press release our union issued yesterday.

Kroger, the Ohio-based corporation that owns QFC and Fred Meyer, plans permanently to close two additional Fred Meyer stores in the Puget Sound region on October 17 and 18, affecting 343 workers.

The stores currently serve Lake City (13000 Lake City Way NE; 175 workers affected) and Redmond (17667 NE 76th St; 168 workers affected).

The company claims that those facilities represent some of the region’s lowest performers in terms of sales.

Today's announcement comes one day after the corporation announced plans to close Fred Meyer locations in Kent and Everett. All told, the closure of these four stores affects 703 workers.

In July, the company also announced plans to close a Tacoma Fred Meyer and the Mill Creek QFC. The announcement today raises the number of Kroger-store closures in our region to six.

We will sit down with the company to bargain over these changes in the coming days.

Our union contracts stipulate that Kroger must offer workers placement in equivalent positions at nearby stores, in accordance with their union seniority.

These closures apparently align with Kroger’s plan to shutter stores in low-sales areas and open stores in potentially high-sales areas, with new Kroger stores scheduled to open in 2026.

This strategy raises serious concerns about food access for working class communities. Three out of the four stores Kroger plans to close are located in zip codes with incomes that rank below their respective county’s household median income.

“In this era of mass consolidation, many of the workers we represent have come to expect this kind of callous, out-of-touch corporate management style from Kroger, but staggering store closure announcements that impact hundreds of workers and thousands of our neighbors over the course of two days is really something else,” said Faye Guenther, UFCW 3000 President.

She added: “Kroger’s closures put profit over people, plain and simple. This corporate strategy might please Wall Street investors, but we know it’ll create food deserts in our neighborhoods and disrupt the lives of hundreds of workers already displaced by a housing affordability crisis now ten years in the making. Without a doubt, these issues will lead our agenda when we return to the table with Kroger and Albertsons in 2027. In the meantime, our union strongly encourages elected leaders to prioritize policies that increase access to fresh, affordable food for all.”

In response to statements from Kroger attributing closures to crime, Bryan Gilderoy, a produce clerk who has worked at the Fred Meyer in Kent for 15 years, said: “From what I can tell in the store, crime has calmed down since COVID. Kroger added security after we demanded it, and things have gotten way better. As a matter of fact, a regular customer came in just yesterday and told me she comes to this store because she feels safest here.”

Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson said, “My office is watching this closely. The closure of six grocery stores in the Puget Sound region creates a lot of uncertainty for the workers and communities who depend on these stores to feed their families. In the coming months, we will be talking to workers and communities about their needs and build on the work we've been doing to make housing and food more affordable in Washington.”

Seattle Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said, “Food deserts aren’t a natural phenomenon—giant grocery store corporations create them when they put their bottom lines over the health and well-being of our communities and workers. Closing stores will put people out of work and make it harder for families to put food on the table – all for the benefit of corporate shareholders and even as CEOs take home millions in pay every single year. I founded the Monopoly Buster’s Caucus in Congress to fight back against this exact kind of treatment of working-class people – consumers and workers – and we’ll be fighting to ensure that everyone has access to quality, affordable food.”

Background

On a June 20, 2025 earnings call, Kroger Interim CEO Ronald Sargent explained the context of the closures this way: “Unfortunately, today, not all of our stores are delivering the sustainable results we need. It's also important to note we paused our annual store review during the merger process ... We usually evaluate individual store performance on an annual basis, and we continue to do that, but we deferred closing any stores due to the merger process.”

Between 2022 and 2024, Kroger spent more than $1 billion in an attempt to merge with Albertsons, which owns Safeway and Haggen, among other banners.

After UFCW 3000 grocery store workers launched a campaign to stop that merger, judges blocked the $25 billion deal in December of 2024. That same month, Kroger announced $7.5 billion in stock buybacks.

Following the failed merger, C&S Wholesalers sued Kroger, claiming Kroger owed the company $125 million. Kroger settled that suit last week on August 11, 2025.

In 2024, Kroger saw a 77% higher net income and 63% higher operating income than they did in 2019, according to company filings (London Stock Exchange Group).

After authorizing a strike in June of 2025, this July grocery store workers in the Puget Sound region ratified a new contract that won first-in-the-nation language to address staffing issues, secured our union healthcare and pensions, and gained some of the largest average annual wage increases we have seen.

UFCW 3000 is the largest private-sector union in Washington State, representing more than 55,000 workers in grocery, healthcare, cannabis, retail, food packing and processing, and textiles and laundry, among other industries. We represent nearly 30,000 grocery workers in Washington, eastern Oregon, and north Idaho.

Puget Sound Allied Grocery Stores - Haggen Meat - Tentative Agreement Reached—Contract Vote Time Scheduled!

Attend and Vote! MEMBERS OF THE BARGAINING TEAM RECOMMENDED A YES VOTE!

Your vote is important. During this vote we will be voting on contract ratification and taking strike authorization. It is your decision if we ratify the contract or prepare for strike. Your bargaining team is recommending YES to ratify the contract and NO to strike.

After months of leafleting, info-picketing, and petition-signing, our bargaining team harnessed the power of thousands of grocery and meat workers to fight and win a fair contract. All that organizing helped win:

• First-of-its-kind staffing language

• Strong Journey wage increases

• Health and pension funding that sees no benefit cuts

• Contract alignment with Snohomish Grocery and Spokane-area grocery/meat, uniting nearly 30,000 grocery workers across Washington State in a unified fight

From June 12 to 15, our team bargained for nearly 60 hours straight, fighting down to the last nickel.

Some other highlights include:

• Training Up: Major investment in a Meat Apprenticeship WeTrain program to help strengthen our industry for years to come

• Premium Increases: Doubling the Meat Manager pay from $1 above Journey to $2 above Journey, the first increase to manager pay in years

• Largest Journey Increase: Largest average increase to our Journey wages over the contract we have ever won

Our union member bargaining team reached a Tentative Agreement and recommends a YES vote to accept the proposal from the employers.

"We're fired up to return to the table sooner than ever—and this time with thousands more workers with us"

— Kyle Doherty, Haggen Meat

These votes are open to all active members of UFCW 3000 Haggen Meat in King County.

Members in good standing are eligible to vote at the following location and date.

Contract Ratification Vote

• Friday, August 22, 2025

• 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

• Haggen Woodinville: Breakroom

• 17641 Garden Way NE, Woodinville, WA 98072

For questions, please contact your Union Representative, bargaining team members, and stewards for updates. If you are unable to connect with your union rep, steward, or bargaining team member you may call the MRC at 1-866-210-3000 for more information.

Puget Sound Allied Grocery Stores - Puget Sound Grocery Store Workers Overwhelmingly Reject Contract, Approve Strike!

After three days of voting across the Puget Sound area, grocery store workers at Fred Meyer, QFC, Albertsons, Safeway, Haggen and Saars voted to reject the latest contract and to authorize a strike by over 97%.

Our union’s overwhelming support for a strike should serve as a wake-up call to these corporations as we continue to fight for better wages, better staffing, and better stores. As these results show, we’re past tired of waiting.

"Corporate is about to have 60,000 problems on its hands,"

— Kevin Flynn, Marysville Albertsons, referencing the workers impacted by strike authorization votes taking place in Colorado and Southern California this week.

Our member-led bargaining team returns to the table late next week, June 12 and 13.

Now is the time to prepare for a strike.

• Review your budget and look for ways to save.
• Contact your steward or union rep and learn how to become a strike captain.
• Keep your eyes peeled for strike schedules and W9s to make sure you qualify for strike benefits.