Union pickets to target more Save-A-Lot stores

By Don Shilling

A grocery union said it will be picketing a store in Poland.

A union is keeping the pressure on local grocer Henry Nemenz even though he closed his store in Hubbard.

The United Food and Commercial Workers sent Nemenz a letter last week that said it intended to place informational pickets at his Poland Save-A-Lot store. The union also started picketing his Save-A-Lot store in Sharon, Pa., right after the Hubbard IGA store closed Sept. 8.

“They are bound and determined to put me out of business wherever they can,” Nemenz said.

Officials at the Cleveland headquarters of UFCW Local 880 could not be reached to comment.

Nemenz closed the Hubbard store after 12 months of picketing by the union. Nemenz said store sales fell 40 percent, and he couldn’t afford to keep the store open.

The union also has been picketing his Struthers IGA store for the past five months. Sales at the store have increased 10 percent since the picketing began, Nemenz said.

“We’ve been there 28 years. We have an extremely loyal customer base,” he said.

The union has been conducting the informational picketing to let the public know that Nemenz stores are not unionized. Nemenz said his employees are satisfied with the way they are treated and questioned why he is being targeted and not Wal-Mart, which also does not have unions.

Nemenz said he thought that perhaps the picketing at the Poland store would begin Monday, but it did not. He said he intends to post signs that say, “Don’t let the pickets close this store.” The signs probably will be placed in the parking lot and at the front of the store, he said.

Nemenz has owned the Poland store for nearly three years.

In Hubbard, Nemenz still has eight years left on his lease at the West Liberty Street plaza where his store was located.

Nemenz said he offered to give away his equipment in the store if another operator would take it over, but three other grocers turned him down. He owns some of the equipment in the store, and some of it is part of the lease.

He said grocers are concerned because Wal-Mart plans to open a store with groceries in Liberty. The opening of a Wal-Mart Supercenter usually causes nearby grocers to lose about 20 percent of their sales, he said.

Nemenz is trying to find another use for the Hubbard space because of the eight years remaining on his lease. He said he also talked to the plaza owner about reducing the size of the store so he could open a Save-A-Lot, but the union said it would resume picketing if he reopened.

The grocer owns eight Save-A-Lot stores and three IGA stores.

shilling@vindy.com