Frank Budwey, owner of Budwey's Food Markets

(photo: Rose Mattrey)

For the past two months, motorists on Kenmore Avenue near Englewood observed fellow citizens taking advantage of their right to protest. Five to ten picketers at a time, depending on the weather, have handed out fliers and toted professionally printed signs that say “Please Don’t Shop, Budwey’s Kenmore Ave., Non-Union.”

The protest has left residents to question whether it’s better to be union or non-union and has fueled a heated dispute between Frank Budwey, the owner of Budwey’s market, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1 union.

Budwey feels that he is being targeted by the UFCW for not accepting a deal they offered him, to unionize his store, before it opened. He believes that the UFCW campaign is only an attempt to collect $2,000 worth of weekly membership dues from his employees because they are hurting for money after their split with the AFL-CIO.

The protest is part of the UFCW’s national campaign to let the public know which stores are unionized and which are not, according to Gregory Gorea, executive assistant to the president of Local 1. He also claims that the UFCW never spoke to Budwey prior to the store’s opening and that no deal was ever offered.

“We are bringing up all non-union grocery stores and letting the public know,” Gorea said. “We have been picketing Budwey’s, Latina’s, Dash’s and Wegmans since Sept. 29.”

However, Chuck Marazzo, president of Latina’s Niagara Importing Co. and John Mills of Dash’s Market, claim to have no knowledge of any protests at their stores.

Budwey says that the union is trying to intimidate him into responding to these protests, and he claims that protestors have also harassed some employees on their way to and from work.

Gorea said that picketers never harassed Budwey’s employees or customers. The protestors are a mix of union members, retired members, other unions and college activists. He said that they are all paid between $7 and $9 an hour based on their function and how long they have been in the line.

He believes that perhaps it is Budwey who is intimidating his employees, not allowing them to speak to the union or vote on whether to unionize. Budwey responded by saying that he has not intimidated any employee into not talking to union members. “If they wanted the union, they all know how to get a hold of them, all you do is walk outside,” he told Artvoice.

The employees at the Kenmore store don’t want or need a union, according to Budwey. He believes that the employees at his unionized North Tonawanda store are very unhappy with the UFCW because they pay dues, but are not well informed about their benefits and only see representatives when it’s time to vote on whether to keep the union. He says that he will not force his Kenmore employees to join against their will. “Fifty percent of my employees belong to this union, they pay dues to them and don’t feel they need the union.”

Budwey added that the Kenmore employees have a better benefits package and higher wages than the unionized store, and no union fees. The benefits package includes a medical plan that covers $500 in vision care, $1,000 in dental care, as well as $30,000 of life insurance for full time employees and a 401(k) plan, according to the Budwey’s employee handbook. The book doesn’t go into specifics as to what the health care plan covers as far as doctor visits and prescriptions except to say that employees are eligible after 60 days of service. Budwey says that the health insurance provides full coverage.

Denise Gatti has worked for Budwey for more than 10 years as a union member at the North Tonawanda store and has been non-union at the Kenmore location since it opened. She said that Budwey is a good boss who respects his employees and gives them better benefits than the union. She said she paid $8 a week in dues at the North Tonawanda store and the union did nothing but take her money without giving her any information about her benefits.

“The only thing I got after two years as a part-time employee was health insurance that covered one physical exam per year, $750 in dental insurance and prescription coverage with a $7 to $12 co-pay,” Gatti said. “As a full-time employee I still had a $250 deductible to meet, plus higher prescription co-pays of around $20.”

Gorea said that it is impossible for Budwey to offer better benefits for his 250 employees then the union can, with its 20,000 members, when the UFCW is Blue Cross Blue Shield’s largest customer. Gorea said that Budwey’s claim to offer better benefits is not true. He provided a health care summary plan to back his claim and challenged Budwey to do the same.

The UFCW’s summary plan has an annual $150 deductible per person. It covers most inpatient care in full, including maternity and newborn care. Prescription drugs have co-pays of $12 generic and $20 for name brands. The plan offers $25,000 of life insurance for full-time employees of less than 16 years. Their dental plan covers $1,500 with a $25 deductible.

There is no way of knowing if Kenmore Budwey’s employees want these union benefits or not, because they never met or voted on the matter.

Earl A. Eckert, a UFCW member and former meat cutter at the North Tonawanda Budwey’s, believes that the reason that a vote hasn’t taken place is because Budwey is trying to keep the union out of the Kenmore store in order to make more money. Eckert said that Budwey urged him to lead a charge to decertify the UFCW at the Tonawanda location. Eckert claimed to have accumulated 50 percent of the employees’ signatures, while only 30 percent were needed to pass the vote. But after two union representatives visited his house the night before the vote, he had a change of heart. He said they warned him that Budwey might not keep his promises regarding wages and benefits and that without a union the employees would be left helpless.

“Frank told me and other people that without the union we’d get better pay rates per hour,” Eckert said. “I found out that they [Budwey’s and his managers] were trying to make a sucker out of me to get decertification and that they weren’t going to give the employees anything.”

It’s hard to see which party is in the right through all the bickering and finger pointing. The feud between the two sides has caused both to resort to childish and even dangerous acts.

On several occasions protestors have dressed up in cow costumes and urged customers to question the quality of Budwey’s meat. Eckert claims that when he worked in the meat department at the Tonawanda store, out of the three meat categories that Budwey offered, “choice,” “prime” and “select,” Budwey purchased large quantities of third-grade, “select” meat. Although Budwey never falsely labeled the meat, Eckert said that third-grade meat is of poor quality and is usually sold overseas. Budwey denies this claim and says that all of his meat is first grade and USDA approved.

Budwey’s 23-year-old son, Justin Budwey was charged with felony reckless endangerment for attempting to run over two picketers with his 2001 Land Rover truck on Oct. 23. Although, Budwey senior claims that it was just an accident due to heavy traffic.

Frank Budwey has been in the supermarket business since he was 10 years old. He took over his family’s North Tonawanda supermarket at 393 Division in 1974. They moved to 535 Division as the business grew over the years. Budwey sold the store in 1995 to Jubilee, but bought it back in 2000. He claims that it was his idea for employees to unionize while the store was under Jubilee management because the workers were being mistreated. When he opened the Kenmore store he decided not to unionize because his employees at the North Tonawanda location were so unhappy with the union over the years.

“The management was really bad when it was Jubilee,” Gatti said. ”They were nasty to employees. You would get fired for no reason at all, they would cut your hours or switch you to part-time if they felt like it.”

The UFCW was founded in 1979, the result of a merger between the Retail Clerks International Union and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters. They represent 1.4 million members throughout the United States and Canada according to their Web site.

The UFCW broke with the AFL-CIO this past July because, according to Gorea, they wanted to deal less with politics and more with organizing and promoting more person-to-person activities with the public. The AFL-CIO denied a UFCW proposal to get back to grassroots organizing, prompting the split.

Labor unions of the past used to be the voice of the American worker taking to the streets to hear their concerns and fight for their rights. In order to get back to their roots, the UFCW created the Change to Win Coalition, made up of seven unions: the UFCW, Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, UNITE-HERE, Laborers, Farm Workers and Carpenters. Change to Win represents approximately 6 million workers and says it is devoted to rebuilding the American labor movement through a large-scale, coordinated campaign.

The bottom line of the union vs. non-union debate comes down to these facts: Budwey’s Kenmore employees are non-union, pay no weekly membership dues and are provided with a benefits package. UFCW union workers have a similar benefits package, but with several deductibles. Their members pay dues, but are also guaranteed consistent hours, wages, pay raises, advancement opportunities and that they can’t be fired without just cause.

The purpose of unions, in general, is to protect workers from exploitation by employers and to ensure a safe working environment. However, due to the efforts of the UFCW and other unions, government agencies provide much more protection these days.

As long as Budwey is a good employer and his employees are happy, a union may not be needed. But that fact cannot be determined without a meeting or vote. Some employees may want a union, but are afraid to discuss it. Those workers must be made aware of their legal right to join a union if the majority of them want one and must be allowed to have open discussion to make that determination. If they chose not to, their employer should not be coerced into unionizing through use of legal protests and smear campaigns.

Tonawanda resident Paula Tedesco, who has shopped at Budwey’s since they opened, said that she doesn’t care if they’re union or not, their prices are great, and she especially loves the meat sales. She said that she’s worked in a half-union, half non-union store and voted against the union, because some groups are too strong and demand too much.

“If you’re being treated fairly by your employer, you don’t need a union,” Tedesco said. “If you have a good rapport with your employer, they treat you fairly, and you give them an honest day’s wage.”

Nadia S. Pizarro is the editor of The Record at Buffalo State College. To respond, mail Artvoice or send e-mail to editorial@artvoice.com.