Bruno's Supermarkets says union contract should be rejected, purchase offer unacceptable

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, April 9 - Bruno's Supermarkets, LLC said a purchase offer submitted by a party that was in talks with UFCW Local 1657 is unacceptable and reinforces the need to reject the union's collective bargaining agreement, according to a letter filed Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

According to a separate letter sent to the court by union representative Thomas N. Ciantra, the potential purchaser made a bid to acquire a block of Bruno's stores on a going-concern basis, and the union has reached a tentative agreement with the prospective buyer under which Bruno's employees would be included under a separate contract.

Ciantra said the buyer also expects to hire a substantial number of Bruno's store employees.

As a result, Ciantra said "there is no need to reject the labor agreement to affect a going-concern sale of Bruno's stores."

However, Bruno's letter said no purchaser is going to agree to assume the collective bargaining agreements, and the union's refusal to remove a related clause is unreasonable.

"If anything, the agreement Mr. Ciantra describes merely demonstrates that purchasers are interested as long as the successorship clause is removed and they can enter into different agreements with the union besides the existing CBAs," Bruno's representative K. Bryance Metheny said in the company's letter.

In addition, the company said the proposal in question "is only marginally above liquidation value and filled with contingencies that are untenable."

Bruno's said the offer also only covers 36 of 56 stores, leaving nearly a third of the stores without any buyer.

Bruno's, a Birmingham, Ala., owner and operator of Bruno's and Food World, filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 5 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Its Chapter 11 case number is 09-10368.

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