Local union leads supermarket boycott

A local electrician's union has called for a boycott of Supremo Supermarket chains throughout Philadelphia and New Jersey.

The chain is set to finish construction on a site at 4347 Walnut St. by this May.

The protest is a response to Supremo's refusal to hire union workers for electrical repairs at the location, only blocks from Penn's campus, said Frank Keel, a spokesman for Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Keel said that the union is angry not only because Supremo opts to use non-union labor but also because it is bringing workers from outside the city to construct projects within Philadelphia.

Supremo Supermarkets owner and President Eddie Trujillo said that the budget for the new supermarket cannot accommodate the $100 hourly fee charged by local union electricians.

"I have licensed, professional electricians that I pay $65 an hour," Trujillo said. "This is a small electrical job and I wanted to do it with my own people who I've been doing business with for a while -- people I know and trust."

Keel says there is more at stake.

"The union desires to protect the wages and standards they have fought so hard to obtain in Philadelphia," he said. "If Philadelphia's families are good enough to spend their hard-earned money in Supremo's supermarkets, why aren't they good enough to be put to work?"

Union workers are picketing at a Supremo in New Jersey and at a Supremo construction site on North Broad Street in Philadelphia, according to Keel.

The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, a private non-profit group that is funding the Walnut St. Supremo's construction, does not require that the supermarket use union labor, corporation vice president for financing services Jennifer Rodriguez said.

Trujillo added that all the employees hired to operate the new supermarket will be union workers and will receive benefits.

"On the construction end of it, the people I use to do the construction and the electrical workers are not union workers," he said. "But by no means am I underpaying these people."

Furthermore, Trujillo said he is not concerned about bringing in workers from outside the city to do electrical repairs.

"We have some people that do not live in Philadelphia working there, but some of the people in the union don't live in Philadelphia, either," Trujillo said.

According to Keel, Supremo has "turned a deaf ear" to requests from IBEW to negotiate. However, Trujillo said that he has sat down with the union on several occasions.

"They feel that trying to embarrass my company and myself personally will put their union employees on the job, but that's not going to happen," Trujillo said.

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