“This is Hollywood villain stuff … don’t be that guy,” says McGowan

EDMONTON – The president of Alberta’s largest worker organization, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), has sent a scathing letter to the CEO of the company that owns Sobeys and Safeway, urging him to back away from his “despicable” plan to make thousands of Alberta Safeway employees pay back wages that have been lawfully paid to them over the past two years.

Some employees could be on the hook to repay thousands of dollars if the company goes through with its threat.

“Someone on your team has clearly given you bad advice,” wrote AFL president Gil McGowan in his letter to Michael Medline, CEO of Empire Company Inc., the corporate conglomerate that owns both Sobeys and Safeway.

“They may think that it’s clever to use the threat of wage claw backs as a bargaining tactic to divide the workforce and force the union to accept concessions. But, make no mistake – this strategy of threatening and bullying your Alberta Safeway employees will backfire.”

In this letter, McGowan points out to Medline that “Canadians are fed up with large corporations who have used the pandemic and the supply shocks caused by global events, like the war in Ukraine, as a pretext to jack up prices far beyond the cost of inputs.”

McGowan goes on to warn that “dickhead moves” like this increase the likelihood of a public backlash that could negatively impact the company’s reputation and bottom line.

“This is Hollywood villain stuff. Do you really want to set your reputation and corporate image on fire?” writes McGowan, adding that, among other things, the AFL will work to get Sobeys/Safeway bumped from the list of Canada’s “Top 100 Employers” if Medline choses to proceed with his wage claw back plan.

McGowan says the Alberta labour movement will support the workers if Safeway drags them into court. He also says the AFL will consider discouraging union members from shopping at Safeway, a move that would only be taken as a last resort.

“We … encourage (our members) to shop at stores that are unionized and which pay and treat their employees fairly. But if we have to discourage them from shopping in certain stores, we will. Please don’t make us do that to Safeway, where many of our members have been loyal customers for years.”

McGowan concludes his letter by wishing that Medline experiences a Christmastime epiphany in the style of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

“You can be the old Scrooge, who never missed an opportunity to screw customers and workers, or the new and improved Scrooge, who understood that being a decent human and a successful businessman are not mutually exclusive goals. Here’s hoping that you opt for the latter.”

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Here’s a link to McGowan’s letter to Medline.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Ian Hussey
Executive Staff, AFL
Email: ihussey@afl.org