Smart & Final Boycott

While out shopping a few days ago, I was handed a flyer (pictured above) by a picketer outside Smart & Final. It seems a few months ago over 600 Southern California warehouse workers voted for union representation. In retaliation, the owner of Smart & Final, Mexican grocery giant Grupo Comercial Chedraui, now plans to fire them all and make them reapply for their jobs likely offering much lower wages and fewer benefits. This is just one more example of corporate payback and lack of respect and loyalty to their workers.

Since the pandemic, we’ve seen the price of groceries soar, and yet workers are the last to see any benefit from the additional profits. Instead, there are more self-service lanes so fewer wages need to be paid, and when a small group of workers vote to have their voice heard, they are punished by the corporation.

If you’re a Southern California Smart & Final shopper, please consider these 600 workers and their families before entering the store and handing over your money to the behind-the-scenes corporate charlatans. When you and I stop outside the door and management feels that at the register, hopefully they’ll be forced to reconsider this heavy-handed action.