On April 12, Marsh CEO Frank Lazaran announced his retirement, driving renewed speculation that Sun Capital is preparing to sell the company, a move that could put Marsh workers’ future in jeopardy. 

“As Lazaran talked about successes and the future Tuesday, some in the industry had other thoughts of what is taking place at Marsh.

“My first thought is they are finally preparing to sell the company,” said Anthony Tracy, with United Food and Commercial Workers, whose Indianapolis Local 700 is attempting to organize the grocery chain’s 5,000 workers. “There is something in the works.”

Rumors have swirled for months that Sun Capital has been looking for a buyer.”

Read the full article here. Marsh associates who want to know what this change could mean for them, and how to make sure their voices are heard in the coming weeks, should call UFCW Local 700 at (317) 248-0391.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 

Marsh to Pay Over $40,000 to Dismissed Workers

Marsh Supermarkets in Indiana, owned by the Florida-based private equity group Sun Capital Partners, Inc., this week settled for over $40,000 in a National Labor Relations Board case brought by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700. Charged with firing two workers because they were trying to organize a union, Marsh has agreed to pay a total of $42,500 to the two workers and to not interfere with any attempt by employees to form a union.

“The workers who unjustly lost their jobs will be made whole by this settlement,” said UFCW Local 700 President Joe Chorpenning. “What’s more, the settlement requires Marsh to inform its employees that they have the right to form, join, and assist a union under federal law, and to commit to not interfering with, restraining, or coercing its employees in any way that deters them from exercising their rights to join a union and have a voice on the job. This is a victory not only for the two workers, but for all Marsh employees who, since the company was bought by Sun Capital, have faced intimidation and deteriorating working conditions.”

The settlement resolves charges brought by UFCW Local 700 last year that Marsh violated federal law by threatening, intimidating, interrogating, and coercing its workers to try to discourage them from forming a union; and with illegally firing two employees for supporting the union. The settlement, in addition to requiring Marsh to make the dismissed workers whole, requires the company to post notices in its stores explaining to workers their rights to form, join, or assist a union under federal law, and outlining the behavior it has agreed not to engage in.

Those behaviors include: discriminating against or firing union supporters; interrogating employees about their support for the union; placing workers’ union activities under surveillance; threatening employees with retaliation for supporting the union; and making rules that prohibit employees from discussing the union on company time or that ban employees from talking to their coworkers about the union during non-working time in non-working areas.

NLRB Website Shows Injunction Sought Against Marsh Supermarkets

According to the NLRB website, the Board is seeking an injunction against Marsh Supermarkets in reference to unfair labor practice charges filed by UFCW Local 700 on the behalf of workers who felt harassed and intimidated as they tried to form a union to have a voice on the job. 

For the second time in three months, the National Labor Relations Board again has charged Marsh Supermarkets Inc. with violating federal law by threatening and intimidating workers attempting to unionize the grocery chain.

Feature story in the Indiana Business Journal

The National Labor Relations Board again has charged Marsh Supermarkets Inc. with violating federal law by threatening and intimidating workers attempting to unionize the grocery chain.

NLRB issued a complaint earlier this week accusing Marsh of violating employee rights at its Beech Grove store in advance of a scheduled vote to unionize in September. The latest charges follow a similar complaint filed by NLRB in December involving Marsh’s Georgetown Road store.

“The new charges indicate that the threats and intimidating tactics the NLRB found evidence of at the Georgetown Road store were not an isolated incident, but instead part of a broader pattern of coercive management tactics,” the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said in a Friday press release.

NLRB accuses Marsh management of placing workers at the Beech Grove store under surveillance, threatening employees with retaliation for supporting unionization, and even firing one for backing the attempt to organize.

Marsh executive Dave Redden “vehemently” denied the charges, saying “we remain confident that in the end these allegations will be found to be without merit.”

NLRB has set a Feb. 16 hearing to present details of the unfair labor practices it has levied against Marsh.

As IBJ reported last fall, the union drive picked up steam as Marsh’s parent company tried to sell the chain then pulled it off the market after failing to find a buyer.

Florida-based private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, which bought Marsh for $88 million in cash and the assumption of $237 million in debt, found no takers after it began marketing Marsh for $130 million to $150 million in late 2009.

The labor relations board certified a 44-employee bargaining unit at the Beech Grove Marsh store, and a vote to authorize the union was scheduled for September.

But Local 700 canceled the election after Marsh reportedly fired an employee in retaliation for his organizing activities, assigned corporate staff to the store on Albany Street in Beech Grove to intimidate employees, and trained security cameras on one employee.

Feature story from the Indianapolis Star

By Tom Spalding
tom.spalding@indystar.com

The National Labor Relations Board has charged Indianapolis-based Marsh Supermarkets with violating federal law by thwarting the formation of a union at stores in the grocery chain.

Store managers discouraged or stymied efforts of employees to organize with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700 and threatened termination for engaging in union activity, the NLRB said in an order, which is dated Nov. 29.

The board has scheduled a Feb. 16 hearing before an administrative law judge on the charges.

The food workers’ union made the order public today.

Marsh is owned by the Boca Raton-based Sun Capital Partners, Inc. Messages left this afternoon with a Marsh spokeswoman were not immediately returned.

None of the 100 stores in Marsh’s portfolio has organized workers. Although the Labor Board’s order does not identify the location, the Washington, D.C.-based United Food and Commercial Workers said the violations were in reference to incidents that took place in April and May at Store 38 in Indianapolis, 5624 Georgetown Road. 

Similar charges are being investigated at a store in Beech Grove.

Organizers have said they pursued a union because their pay and hours have been cut since out-of-state private equity firm Sun Capital purchased Marsh in 2006.

Marsh has previously denied those claims and said that since Sun took over, they have invested money to upgrade stores and make them competitive in a tough environment.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Marsh Created Climate of Fear, Making Free and Fair Election Impossible, Union Charges

Indianapolis – Citing an atmosphere so coercive that workers were not free to exercise their right to choose, UFCW Local 700 today announced the decision to postpone the union election scheduled to take place Friday at the Marsh supermarket in Beech Grove, Ind., until conditions in the store improve. The union has filed Unfair Labor Practices charges against Marsh with the National Labor Relations Board, seeking to stop any future intimidation of workers so that a free and fair election can be made possible in the future.

Marsh workers, seeking to form a union with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700, have reported an increasingly hostile work environment since they began organizing themselves. Charges filed with the NLRB detail Marsh’s anti-union tactics, including firing a union supporter, denying raises to certain union supporters, prohibiting workers from distributing information about the union in non-work areas, and putting workers under surveillance of corporate management. 

UFCW Local 700 withdrew its election petition Thursday in order to allow sufficient time for the NLRB to resolve the unfair labor practice charges. 

 “From the outset, we called on Marsh to sign a pledge committing to allow the election to proceed in a free and fair manner; it’s easy to see now why they refused to sign it,” said Joe Chorpenning, President of UFCW Local 700. “The company has created a climate of fear in the store to try to scare workers away from joining together to strengthen their collective voice.”

From the Indianapolis Business Journal

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700, which last month filed unfair labor practice charges against Marsh Supermarkets, is seeking a union election at a Marsh store in Beech Grove, the union announced Monday.

UFCW Local 700 said it petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for an election at the Marsh store at 1815 Albany St. in Beech Grove. A majority of the store’s workers have signaled their intention to join a union, Local 700 said.

In a press release, Local 700 said worker interest in union representation began to rise at  Indianapolis-based Marsh after Florida-based private equity group Sun Capital Partners acquired the grocery chain in 2006.

“Workers at Marsh stores across the region have grown increasingly concerned about their job security and other working conditions,” the union said in the statement.

Last month, the union accused Marsh of using illegal interrogation practices and unlawfully terminating a worker for exercising his right to organize a union. Local 700 filed those charges with the NLRB

The charges followed attempts by Marsh workers to deliver a petition to company headquarters signed by more than 5,000 people asking executives to meet with them about “the future direction of the company,” the union said.

The union alleged the coalition was met by security and ordered off the company’s property at 333 S. Franklin Road, on the east side of Indianapolis.

“We are asking for a union election because we know that our voices are stronger together,” said April Stum, a 22-year Marsh employee who works at the Beech Grove store, in the prepared statement from the union. “Things have changed here since Marsh was bought by Sun Capital, and it’s time workers stood together to defend our interests and our communities.”

A spokeswoman for Marsh did not immediately respond to a call and e-mail seeking comment on the latest charges.

Marsh operates about 100 stores in Indiana and Ohio.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Build a Better Marsh petitions signed by 5,000 community members

On Wednesday, June 2, Marsh workers and Indiana community leaders marched on the Marsh headquarters to deliver petitions signed by 5,000 community members asking the CEO of Sun Capital – the Florida-based private equity group that owns Marsh – to meet with a delegation of Marsh workers about the future of the company.

Marsh workers, Marion County Recorder Julie Voorhies, IUPUI professor Tom Marvin, Allison Luthe of Central Indiana Jobs with Justice, and other community supporters were met by Marsh’s head of security and told that CEO Frank Lazaran would not meet with meet with them and would not accept the community petitions signed by Marsh customers. The peaceful coalition was then ordered off the property.