Kroger

Kroger was the Detroit employer at the center of Jimmy Hoffa’s first major labor victory. In 1932, workers handling fresh produce on the company’s loading platform refused to move a shipment of strawberries until Kroger recognized their union and met their demands. The company gave way under pressure from the perishable cargo, granting the new one-company union a one-year charter. That brief success made the workplace a decisive starting point in Hoffa’s organizing career.

Work on the Platform

At nineteen, Hoffa worked as a loader and unloader of fresh fruits and vegetables on the platform dock of the Kroger Food Company in Detroit. He earned 32 cents an hour, but 20 cents of that pay came as credit redeemable at Kroger food stores. The workers received the hourly wage only when there was work to do.

Their shift began with a 4:30 P.M. report time and could last twelve hours. They were not permitted to leave the platform; when no trucks needed loading or unloading, they waited without pay. The arrangement left workers bearing the cost of idle time while remaining at the employer’s disposal.

The Strawberry Boys’ Strike

On a hot spring afternoon in 1932, a load of strawberries arrived from Florida. Hoffa gave a signal, and the workers—who became known as the Strawberry Boys—refused to move the fruit into refrigerator cars until Kroger recognized their union and addressed their working conditions. Their demands included a guarantee of four hours’ pay for each twelve-hour shift.

The threatened loss of the strawberries gave the workers immediate leverage: the company faced the prospect of the fruit spoiling in the heat. Kroger acceded to their demands and granted the new union a one-year charter. The episode was an unusual labor victory during the Great Depression, when scarce jobs made it easier for employers to replace striking workers.

A Short-Lived Victory and Its Consequence

The charter did not secure a lasting agreement. The following year, Kroger refused to negotiate a new contract, and the Strawberry Boys’ victory proved short-lived. Yet Hoffa’s stand had already brought him to the attention of Teamsters Local 299, which recruited him as an organizer.

That recruitment carried the struggle beyond one company’s loading platform. Hoffa’s new task was to encourage workers to join the union and use solidarity and organization to improve their lives and those of their families. Kroger’s brief concession thus marks both the limit of the workers’ first success and the beginning of Hoffa’s wider union career.