Union making another bid to organize workers at Schenctady-based Price Chopper

A union representing grocery store workers is seeking to organize Price Chopper employees.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, with approximately 1.3 million members in the United States and Canada, launched a unionization effort outside of Price Chopper stores in the Capital Region and near Watertown about four weeks ago. The supermarket chain is operated by Schenectady-based Golub Corp.

The UFCW has been trying to organize the family-owned business for more than 50 years. The last time it obtained an employee vote was a decade ago; the union lost overwhelmingly.

Members of UFCW Local 1, based in Oriskany, are handing out fliers and membership cards, hoping to obtain signatures of Price Chopper’s workers, who number approximately 23,000 at 128 stores in six states. It is unclear if the union is also working in states outside of New York; a union representative was not available for comment Tuesday night.

If the union can obtain signatures of 30 percent of the grocery chain’s employees, it can petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold a ballot election.

In 2001, workers in the Golub warehouse facilities in Rotterdam, Colonie, Voorheesville and Waterford voted against the union 640-91. It was the union’s second loss within 18 months.

Golub Corp. President and CEO Neil Golub called the union’s latest bid “a public relations campaign to try to get the attention of our teammates, who show little, if any interest in their organization effort.”

Said Golub: “They come around every few years and knock on our door. It is a free country.” He said the union fails to win over employees because the “company treats people with dignity and respect and we are an employee-owned company.”

He sent a letter to company employees about three weeks ago, telling them that joining a union is not in their best interest and that signing a union authorization cards would cause them to give up some of their rights and appoint the UFCW to represent them.

Golub said the company pays competitive wages and offers a good health plan. Also, employees own slightly more than 50 percent of the company’s stock and participate in a profit-sharing retirement trust. “When they retire, they can cash in their stocks,” he said.

Golub said Price Chopper continues to grow and that when “every business had to pull in its horns during this recession, while we have had to adjust, we have not laid off one person. We adjusted hours and expanded business.”

The Golub Corp. is ranked No. 112 on the Forbes list of largest U.S. private companies, which is 17 notches higher than the company’s spot on the 2009 list, according to Forbes magazine. Forbes said Golub had revenue of $3.4 billion last year.

When the P&C supermarket chain when bankrupt, Golub purchased its stores in Canton, Potsdam, Massena, Gouverneur and West Carthage, N.Y., and Lincoln, N.H. The UFCW represented workers of P&C stores.