Washington grocery workers hope for protections if Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through

i understand their concerns. The likelihood of losing jobs is greatest in the possibility of having to close stores to avoid antitrust. I went through the Jewel/Albertsons merger ago. For stores that stayed open, there was no significant change in labor in the short term. Over time, however, the management structure was changed in Jewel/Osco stores. Under the previous Jewel/Osco operation there was a store manager for Jewel and one for Osco. There were assistant managers for Jewel and assistant managers for Osco. The rationale for this was the significant difference in the nature of the drug business and the food business requiring managers to focus differently on their business. Food operations are more short term focused because of the nature of their products. Drug stores have a longer term focus because they are selling seasonal product that requires looking further out. In the end the management staff in those stores was essentially cut in half. The hourly workforce remained roughly the same.