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After voting over the previous three days Kroger members of UFCW 1059 approved and ratified their 4th contract offer with 3,546 “Yes” votes to 3,193 “No” votes.

Kroger 1059 members had previously rejected their new three-year deal three times as negotiations between UFCW 1059 and Kroger corporate have been on-and-off since late July.

Even if they had rejected their contract a fourth straight time the union would only have authorized a strike if 66 percent of members voted ‘No’ this fourth time, this according to Kroger workers to the Free Press.

For the 3rd vote, 55 percent voted “No” and 44 percent “Yes,” which would have made the 66 percent threshold an uphill battle for the 12,000-plus Kroger members of UFCW 1059.

Worse, say Kroger workers, is how they previously voted to authorize a strike in the 3rd vote, but the union instead went back to the bargaining table.

As word spread last night that the contract had passed, stunned Kroger workers turned to social media to express their frustration.

“Why now and not the other times?” wrote one worker on a Kroger online forum. “It was the same contract!! Let the job search begin.”

A supermoon, sun of the night, isn’t always a sure thing. There is no safe trip 
Going back
Going limp
Going slack
With the weight of your simple message
that I am just a crack
In that veneer of faith wallpapered over the
faith you lack
There aren’t enough daydreams to buoy this
There aren’t enough churches to bury this
There aren’t enough lies to stack
While me and my body are lost to
echoes of the last frontal attack;
While me and my sisters are broken in half
While me and my daughters are soaked in the black of coat hanger deaths and still born baths

And if you think
We’re going back
To those days
When the world felt like it was on track
because you were born with a cock and a sack
and you could keep your bitch on a leash in the back
When we bred your heirs with a smile and a knack
For obedient care,
With a stepford stare under a pink pretty wrap
When we held our tongues and bent like sap
When we baked you a pie
with your heel on our backs

Homebound Entrepreneurs Against DeWines takes on Justice Pat DeWine for his alleged adultery and two messy divorces

To spice up the general election season, the anti-DeWine PAC Homebound Entrepreneurs Against DeWines has finally released a more straightforward political ad called “Cheating Pat DeWine,” which takes aim at Governor Mike DeWine’s son, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine, who is running for re-election this year.

Kroger members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 1059 have rejected three contracts and the 1059’s negotiating team is returning to the bargaining table with Kroger corporate today (Tuesday, September 27).

UFCW 1059 members also voted to strike if the union leadership would authorize it, but so far 1059 President Randy Quickel – who’s salary is over $222,000 – has sent mixed signals to the 12,500-plus Kroger members of 1059.

For example, word was spreading through local stores that if a strike were to be authorized, 1059 would pay $250 for 20 hours of picketing but only for the first week. But because 1059 leadership does not take questions from the media, and just offers statements, the Free Press could not confirm this. 

Nonetheless, Kroger corporate is also preparing for a strike.

Kroger corporate negotiators told UFCW 1059 on Wednesday they will return to the bargaining table on September 27.

Kroger 1059 members and union stewards are calling it “a win” for their union and, more importantly, themselves.

Overworked, exhausted, and stressed out, Kroger 1059 members exhaled deeply Wednesday night as word spread the standoff had ended since they rejected the last contract vote a week ago, the third time in 45 days they voted down their three-year deal.

These same Kroger 1059 members were telling the Free Press that word was spreading through the stores that union stewards were pressing 1059 leadership – its main office in White Hall – to authorize a strike.

But what made Kroger corporate return to the bargaining table, and not make their last offer its “last, best, and final offer,” is unknown.

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 1059 told local Kroger members earlier this week: “To this point, there is no firm commitment from Kroger to return to the bargaining table, but we expect further communications from the Company this week.”

Since this letter, Kroger employees told the Free Press that 1059 has alerted union stewards they may give authorization to strike, which could occur today (Wednesday). UFCW 1059 represents 12,500 Kroger associates in 84 stores. Some are part-time, such as teenagers and those on the autism spectrum.

But there’s the difference – the majority of 1059 members work full-time and are longtime veterans of Kroger, like the 40-year union steward we spoke with, or those who stock our freezers for hours on end, drive a forklift in warehouses, or man the registers eight hours a day.

One thing the pandemic proved is that every community has a far greater dependence on fulltime grocery store workers than was once apparent.

In the past few months, I have renewed my love for all-things Star Wars, watching and re-watching the movies, TV shows, and limited series. While this franchise takes place in a galaxy far, far away, one scene from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith feels as if it is happening in Ohio today. 

As the democratic Republic is transformed into the evil Galactic Empire, amid the rancorous cheering of fellow senators, Senator Padmé Amidala exasperatedly comments, “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.”

While it might seem reductive to apply the events of a science-fiction movie to the politics of our own state, Ohio Republicans have gerrymandered their way to veto-proof supermajorities in the State House and State Senate in a manner that threatens our own democracy. 

On the Westside of Columbus, Kroger employee “Saundra” arrives at her store at 4am to push an oversized cart as she shops during the next eight hours for others in the community. Since the pandemic, Kroger’s “ClickList” – for those who don’t want to go inside and shop – is booming. “Saundra” makes $14-an-hour with benefits, but benefits that have become more expensive.

“They thought an extra $.15 cents would be enough, but everyone in my store was like “no way,’” said Saundra (not her real name).

For the past three days, Kroger’s United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 1059 members voted a third time on a new three-year deal. Each contract was endorsed by their own union (UFCW 1059), but the 12,500 Kroger members of 1059 voted “No” each time.

During the third vote, UFCW 1059 added another vote – one to “authorize a strike” – and that passed as well.

If Kroger corporate does not come back to the bargaining table with more, members have told the Free Press they will press UFCW 1059 leadership to greenlight a strike.

Intel Corporation and the State of Ohio sealed their marriage on Friday with the officiant flying in on Air Force One just in time to pronounce the happy couple forever joined at the chip. 

The groom, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, had thrown a public tantrum in early July, calling off the scheduled ceremony because the bride’s Uncle Sam went on vacation without leaving a credit card number to provide the dowry. He even threatened to elope to Europe with another bride. 

But there was no mention of that hiccup on this sunny September morning in New Albany, Ohio. The couple dozen attendants each gave a speech predicting the most productive marriage ever of any global corporate power and lonely rust belt state. 

Billed as a groundbreaking ceremony, a good deal of ground had been broken before the ceremony began. Earthmovers were lined up around the temporary outdoor seating area, parked in neat rows nearby for aerial cameras to capture, and occasionally paraded behind the speakers, who were each announced by Jerry Revish while the Best Damn Band in the Land played the Ohio State fight song. 

Hello Columbus.

After a much-needed sabbatical from writing about the social issues that I feel are important, not only to me in my present life, but to my children, and all of the grandchildren that will be from the seeds of my womb, I have decided it is time to start my articles again.

I spoke with a young man, doesn’t matter the race, who said he was twenty-eight years old. I don’t know how we got on the subject, but voting came up. He said it was a “waste of time to vote.”

I have learned that it is better to speak logical when speaking with young people in regard to political matters. In fact, in regard to anything that pertains to adulthood and life. I speak to them where they live.