Managing Editor

Published Sept. 28, 1999

Though about one fourth of the Troy Food World’s employees have joined a company-wide strike, the business remains open and has enough people on hand to serve customers.

Troy, according to numbers released by Bruno’s Inc. officials, has a relatively low percentage of striking workers. According to officials, as many as 60 percent of employees joined the strike.

"We have a lot of part-time workers here," said Keith Judy, a worker who walked picket lines carrying a sign Monday. "We understand where they’re coming from. Most of them don’t want to strike, and there’s no bad will here. Everybody’s got to do what they think is right."

Judy, the seafood manager of the store, said he is concerned about Bruno’s Inc.’s declared bankruptcy status and worries about his future.

"They tell us that they’re not planning to sell," he said. "But we have to get assurances that if they do our jobs will be safe. We just want to protect ourselves in the long run."

Bruno’s Inc. has been walking a financial tightrope and has declared bankruptcy. As the company begins to emerge, employees feel that the company may be ripe for an offer and are afraid they will lose their jobs in a corporate buy-out.

The situation is a precarious one for Judy and his fellow workers at Food World in Troy.

"We don’t want to be here," Judy said. "We don’t want to be out in the rain and the heat doing this. But we do what we have to do."

Still, Judy said, Food World hasn’t been slowed by the strike.

"There are a lot of people at work," Judy said. "Everybody had to follow their own conscience."

Judy said 20 of Food World’s estimated 60 employees are striking, and that numbers remain relatively low due to part-time student help.

"There are about 20 of us," he said. "We walk the lines in front of the entrances to the parking lot, up to about six of us at a time."