Picket line down at Glen Lake’s Market as store is sold

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 653 took down a picket line Monday at Glen Lake’s Market following the announcement that the business will be sold to union grocer Lunds & Byerlys.

Glen Lake’s Market announced the store would close Sept. 30, while Lunds & Byerlys said it would reopen the grocery in early November.

The UFCW picket line went up in June 2015 when Glen Lake’s Market opened at 14400 Excelsior Blvd. at the site of a former Fresh Seasons Market. At the same time, UFCW picketing also began at newly-opened Victoria’s Market at 7999 Victoria Drive, also at the site of another former Fresh Seasons store.

Fresh Seasons owner Tom Wartman closed the two locations abruptly in May 2014, leaving $150,000 in unpaid vacation pay and unpaid holiday pay owed to UFCW members working there and also leaving $1.4 million in unfunded pension liability to the union’s pension fund.

Wartman remained as the owner of the two properties, however, when the non-union Glen Lake’s Market and Victoria’s Market opened earlier this year.

UFCW Local 653 launched picket lines at the two sites, arguing that Wartman needed to first fulfill his obligations to the workers and the pension fund before profiting from the two new grocery stores.

The picketing continued seven days a week, with former Fresh Seasons employees, UFCW members from other stores, and UFCW staff walking the picket lines.

The picketing kept customers away from the two new stores. Local 653 regularly posted photos on Facebook showing empty parking lots at Glen Lake’s Market and Victoria’s Market, even on holiday weekends.

For UFCW Local 653 president Matt Utecht, “there’s no question in my mind” that the picketing prompted the sale of Glen Lake’s Market to Lunds & Byerlys.

“The support of the community was fantastic,” Utectht said. When people learned the facts of the situation, he said, they understood that Wartman’s obligation to the workers and pension fund was a simple question of “right and wrong.”

When the new Lunds & Byerlys opens at the Glen Lake’s Market site, Utecht said, the workers at the new store will be represented by UFCW Local 653, which has a long-standing relationship with Lunds & Byerlys.

“Taking a bad guy out and replacing it with union jobs — that’s the ultimate,” Utecht said. “The phone has been ringing off the hook all day” with congratulations to the union for standing strong on the picket lines, he added.

Utecht emphasized, “it’s the members, it’s the people walking the line that made this thing go… A union is about its members and it’s about all its members pitching in. It’s about strength in numbers and that has proven to be true in this case.”

UFCW Local 653 isn’t finished with Tom Wartman, however. Former Fresh Seasons workers still are owed $150,000 in unpaid vacation pay and unpaid holiday pay and the $1.4 million unfunded pension liability also remains. “We will continue picketing at Victoria’s Market,” Utecht said. “We will continue legal action… This is good news but it doesn’t make any of the rest of it go away.”

Lunds & Byerlys spokesperson Aaron Sorenson told the Minneapolis Labor Review that the company had no plans to purchase Victoria’s Market “at this time.” The Victoria’s Market location is about 13 miles from the Glen Lake’s Market location.

Sorenson also told the Labor Review that Lunds & Byerlys purchased only the Glen Lake’s Market grocery business, not the property, which is owned by Tom Wartman as Glen Lakes Mall, LLC. “We’ve signed a long-term lease agreement for the site,” Sorenson said.

In a news release, Lunds & Byerlys announced that the approximately 50 people working at Glen Lake’s Market “will have the opportunity to interview with Lunds & Byerlys with the goal of retaining as many of the store’s current employees as possible.”