Bashas’ vs. the union
Mike Proulx, Bashas’ president and chief operating officer, seated at café inside a south Phoenix Food City, talks about the family owned supermarket chain’s battle with the grocery-workers’ union.

Officials from Bashas’ supermarkets and activists affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers union traded barbs this week, each accusing the other of dishonesty in an increasingly bitter labor feud.
Officials from the supermarket chain held two separate press conferences July 9 to rip into the union’s claims that expired baby food formula were purchased from dozens of Bashas’ locations and its related affiliate, Food City.
Mike Proulx, Bashas’ president and chief operating officer, accused the UFCW Local 99 of orchestrating a “smear campaign” in retaliation for Bashas’ management’s refusal to enter into a union labor contract without allowing employees a vote by secret ballot.
The overall goal, Proulx said, is to add to the union’s ranks and reverse years of declining national membership.
“They’re a business,” said Proulx, in an interview with the Arizona Capitol Times. “They need to increase their membership so they can increase their dues. We further expect more smear tactics to destroy our image or mislead the public.”
On July 11, representatives of Hungry for Respect, a union-funded coalition, displayed hundreds of cans and bottles of expired baby food formula allegedly purchased from Bashas’ and Food City supermarkets at a press conference held at a north central Phoenix church.
With the exception of a spokeswoman, union officials were absent. In their place stood several community activists and Hector Yturralde, president of Somos America, a group most known for helping to organize massive marches for migrant rights each May for the past two years.
“There’s nobody here from Bashas’,” Yturralde said, of the supermarket chain’s rejection of the invitation to inspect the dozens of pyramids of formulas. “The company’s response is to bury its head in the sand.”
Bashas’ says some claims unfounded
Days before, Proulx questioned the validity of the report by Hungry for Respect, stating some store locations mentioned didn’t even carry several types of the listed formulas and company inventories show some other products were not available during May and June when the union says the purchases were made.
Others at the church meeting, such as Lydia Guzman, a former legislative candidate and adviser to the Clean Elections Institute, described the alleged presence of expired baby formula as the result of Bashas’ understaffing and refusal to listen to warnings from concerned employees.
The Rev. Trina Zelle of Arizona Interfaith Worker Justice contested Bashas’ management’s claim that the chain and its related establishments, which includes A.J’s Fine Foods and Ike’s Farmers’ Markets, haven’t been cited by state health inspectors for outdated formula in years.
“They can’t hide behind a government agency that only inspects 5 percent of baby food formula,” said Zelle, who in December called for the removal of Rep. Russell Pearce, R-18, from his position of House Appropriations chairman for his call to deport illegal immigrants.
However, Zelle, drew a blank when questioned repeatedly on how much the hundreds of cans of formula cost and who paid for them.
“We didn’t shoplift it,” said Zelle, adding she went hunting for expired cans with “another person” who picked up the bill.
Immediately following the press conference, Katy Giglio, a spokeswoman for the UFCW Local 99, said the union had purchased the displayed items.
A Web site operated by Hungry for Respect states 25 of 43 Bashas’ stores inspected in May and June had expired formula on their shelves, and 29 of 52 inspected Food City stores were guilty of the same violation.
On June 9, Giglio rejected claims that the union’s difficulties obtaining access to Bashas’ employees has played a part in the high-profile accusation leveled by a coalition that she said consists of union workers, community members and Bashas’ employees.
“It’s not about union organizing,” said Giglio. “It’s about Bashas’ selling 683 cans of expired baby food formula to the coalition.”
Proulx said the grocery chain has had union recruiters removed from store locations, but said that practice was limited to when employees were interrupted during shifts or when parking lots and store entrances were impeded by union members.
Proulx estimated the Bashas’ chain and affiliates employ 14,000 statewide and said pay scales, which begin at $7 an hour and top off at approximately $17 for higher skilled jobs such as clerk and butcher, existing 401k plans and other benefits have left “members” with little incentive to unionize.
Giglio also estimates 14,000 employees of Safeway and Fry’s supermarkets are UFCW Local 99 members. The union frequently hears complaints from Bashas’ employees about increased health premium costs under the company’s health coverage, she said.