Looming worker strike at Lunds & Byerlys could affect July 4th shopping

The union representing more than 2,500 Lunds & Byerlys workers plans to strike this week during a peak holiday shopping window.

After voting last week to authorize a walkout, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663 said Monday they will strike Thursday through Saturday ahead of next week's July 4th holiday.

The same union represents employees of many Cub stores in the Twin Cities who planned to strike ahead of the Easter holiday before the parties reached an 11th-hour agreement. The union then dropped charges of unfair labor practices, allegations that are also fueling the looming Lunds & Byerlys strike.

The union said Lunds & Byerlys workers have been without a contract since March 7 and seek industry-leading wages and pay equity. Its members also want the continuation of a worker-driven health care plan rather than employer-sponsored coverage.

"It makes a lot of us nervous because it gives away control of our health care," Marshall Everhart, a deli manager at the Eden Prairie store, said before an informational picket this month.

Health care has been a challenging issue as the company has sought to engage with the union to improve those benefits since 2017, said Casey Enevoldsen, Lunds & Byerlys vice president of employee experience and the company's lead negotiator.

No further talks are scheduled this week.

"This is pretty abnormal for our company," Enevoldsen said. "We have a long history of being able to work with various unions that are recognized in our company and get to a mutual agreement."

Enevoldsen said Lunds & Byerlys offers industry-leading wages and has proposed a joint committee to assess pay equity. Part-time workers make $14.50 to $18 an hour, according to the union's website; traditional full-time employees earn $27.13 an hour. The company has proposed hourly raises of $2 to $4.50 through two years, depending on the position.

Local 663 filed unfair labor practices charges against the company, alleging it made coercive statements to employees exercising their rights to participate in protected concerted activity and interrogated workers about union activity. The local also said Lunds illegally surveilled union activity and bargained in bad faith.

"We do deny that any unfair labor practices have been committed," Enevoldsen said.

Lunds & Byerlys, which has 28 stores in the Twin Cities, said that if workers strike, contingency plans are in place to operate the 22 unionized locations the walkout would affect

The unionized stores are: downtown Minneapolis; Northeast Minneapolis; Bloomington; Burnsville; Chanhassen; Eagan; Eden Prairie; Edina's France Avenue location and 50th Street store; Glen Lake Minnetonka; Highway 7 Minnetonka; Golden Valley; Maple Grove; Navarre; Nokomis; Plymouth; Prior Lake; Richfield; Ridgedale; St. Louis Park; Uptown, and Wayzata.