Pickets at the new Save-A-Lot grocery store in West Duluth can continue protesting the store, which is operating with a nonunion work force, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board said.
The pickets, hired by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1116 -- the union that represents employees at most grocery stores in the Duluth area -- began their protest when the store opened Nov. 29. They have appeared with signs in front of the store at least several times a week since then.
On Dec. 29, Cousins' Market of Duluth LLC, which owns Save-A-Lot, filed a charge with the NLRB in Minneapolis alleging that the pickets were trying to get the company to recognize the union and therefore were subject to a 30-day time limit. Extending it beyond Dec. 28, the company's lawyer argued, would be a violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
The union said it was engaged only in informational picketing at the store, at 215 N. Central Ave. in the Spirit Valley Shopping Center.
The NLRB initiated an investigation. On Monday, Local 1116 received a letter from NLRB Regional Director Robert Chester in Minneapolis saying that with his approval, the charge had been withdrawn.
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The company asked to withdraw the charge, and the case is closed, Chester said by phone on Tuesday.
"Myself, I was not too worried about it," Local 1116 President Steve Gilbertson said. "They said we were trying to organize the employees and we clearly told people why we were there."
Shannon Ervasti, a spokeswoman for Cousins' Market, was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
