Schnuck praises workers knowing he was firing 234

Schnuck accepting union award: ‘Let’s protect and build good union jobs’

St. Louis has recently learned that we have our own Donald “You’re fired” Trump: one Todd Schnuck, CEO of Schnuck Markets.

Just as The Donald will say one thing then flip-flop without a twinge of conscience, becoming a hypocrite in an instant, it’s been discovered that Todd Schnuck can apparently do the same.

Todd Schnuck, accepting the 2015 Port Council Man of the Year award, in his own words:

“We can grow together or we can wither away together… Let’s do what we each can to protect and build good union jobs…”

Pleading with the audience to buy from union grocery stores, Schnuck used the example of building “a sizeable construction project” (the new warehouse that is now the center of the fight between Schnucks and Teamsters Local 688). Noting that a union bid was higher than a non-union bid, Todd bragged that they picked the union contractor not only because they would get a better-built project, but “we feel it is the right thing to do.”

NOT 190, BUT 234 TO GET AXE

His “let’s do what we can to protect and build good union jobs” took an even nastier turn when the union learned May 18 from the federally-required WARN notice to Local 688 that they were firing not the 190 Teamsters as everyone thought, but 234 men and women: 204 union warehouse jobs and 30 managers, supervisors and others.

Two hundred and thirty-four lives, many of them with 20 to 40 years with the company, about to be destroyed. The WARN notice is required when companies plan to downsize or fire people.

The firings are to begin July 24 and run through Sept. 25, the notice announced.

HE KNEW WHEN HE ACCEPTED UNION AWARD

‘“Let’s do what we each can to protect and build good union jobs.” So much for Todd Schnuck’s willingness to live by his word and his moral outlook,” said Mike Goebel, Teamsters Local 688’s chief executive officer.

“And sadly, as Mr. Schnuck pointed out in his Port Council acceptance speech, the construction project was already under way but he was willing to avoid the truth so he would look good in front of a major union audience in an effort to promote business for his stores when he knew at the time he was going to fire over 200 loyal union workers and give their jobs to scabs,” Goebel added.

Schnucks has announced that out-of-town non-union employer XPO Logistics will be manning the new warehouse when it opens this summer.

WILL SCHNUCK HAVE COURAGE TO RECONSIDER?

“It’s sad when the CEO of a major employer whose founders built the company’s reputation on being the ‘friendliest stores in town’ and were committed to their employees’ welfare, now sees their employees as a throw away item to be pitched out the door when they want to fatten their bottom line,” Goebel said.

“We urge Todd Schnuck to reconsider this heartless show of distaste for the very workers who helped him and his family become millionaires. We have a contract that says clearly the company must offer the new warehouse jobs to its current members, not fire them and hire scabs. We plan to enforce that contract!”

Local 688 has two charges pending before the National Labor Relations Board and is conferring with the International Teamsters Union on other actions necessary to protect their members’ jobs.

‘THIS CAN BE RESOLVED IF…’

The union has not yet called for a boycott of Schnucks, although hundreds of families have already done so since news of the pending layoffs broke. And there are more and more calls on social media for the union to publicly do so.

“We are ready to meet with Todd to try and resolve this peacefully but whether or not he has the courage to live up to his father’s and uncle’s goal of continuing to be a union-friendly, family friendly company so that they can continue to grow and prosper, well… we’ll just have to wait and see,” Goebel added.