Group protests pickets at Poland grocery store

By Don Shilling

Poland residents say they are concerned pickets will drive out Henry Nemenz.

POLAND — Dueling pickets showed up Friday at Henry Nemenz’s Save-A-Lot store.

Three Poland residents demonstrated against union pickets who have been outside the U.S. Route 224 store this week.

Local 880 of the United Food and Commercial Workers has been posting informational pickets outside some of Nemenz’s area stores since he opened a nonunion store in Hubbard where a union store used to be.

Connie Coloutes, 78, said she organized the protest against the union pickets in Poland after seeing them outside the store recently.

“They are interfering with our rights by intimidating people from going into the store,” said Coloutes, a former township trustee.

Four union pickets were stationed Friday along the road. The residents’ signs asked for drivers to honk in support of Nemenz, and some did.

A Giant Eagle store is across the street from Nemenz’s store, but Coloutes said she does her grocery shopping at Save-A-Lot.

She said Nemenz, who keeps his corporate office in Poland, has been good to the community by helping organizations such as the Poland Historical Society and a Christmas tour of homes.

“Henry Nemenz has always been a charitable fellow who supports our community, and this is our opportunity to support him,” she said.

Coloutes said she knows Nemenz because she has a family member who rents office space from him.

George Rider, 83, of Poland said he joined Coloutes because he is worried that union picketing could close the store. Nemenz closed his Hubbard store last month, saying that sales fell 40 percent after the union began its picketing.

“I like Nemenz,” Rider said. “He gives people jobs, and these people are going to ruin these jobs just like they did in Hubbard.”

A union picket referred questions to Mark Rock, a spokesman for Local 880 in Cleveland. He could not be reached for comment.

The union has said that it wants the public to know that Nemenz’s stores are not unionized. It also has picketed his stores in Struthers and Sharon, Pa.

Nemenz owns eight Save-A-Lot stores and three IGA stores in the area.

shilling@vindy.com