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Teamster at US Foods Seeks Information About Merger
Letter from US Foods Worker to the Federal Trade Commission
From: Frank Rinetti
Date: August 1, 2014 at 3:03:57 PM PDT
To: “antitrust@ftc.gov” <antitrust@ftc.gov>
Subject: Sysco US Foods Merger
Hello,
I am an employee with US Foods. I really like what our company has to offer from brands to customer service.
When I saw the information on a national news station a few months back, I must admit, it was quite shocking and very sad as I have taken great pride to uphold the integrity, customer service and hard work ethic that makes US Foods successful. I couldn’t believe what I was reading and hearing.
I am wondering how the progress into the investigation of the Sysco-US Foods merger is coming along.
My concerns are that once the merge goes through, there will be a great amount of jobs at risk. We currently share accounts and once the merge goes through Sysco won’t need two drivers delivering to the same account. Sysco won’t need two sales reps selling to the same account. So as I see it, drivers and sales reps between the two companies will have the work force cut in half. With other areas of jobs could also be at risk. Customer service reps? Buyers? Warehousemen and women? Management?
It’s been pretty quiet on all fronts on the progress of the merge. I know that I have a mortgage and a family that depends on my income as well as my medical benefits to live on.
I also think that manufacturers, smaller distributors and most importantly Foodservice operators will be impacted. The competition simply won’t be there and Sysco will own the market.
Manufacturers could possibly have to lower pricing for the volume of products that Sysco will be requesting.
Foodservice operators will be limited on customer service and pricing could get out of control as there won’t be any competition other than from smaller distributors that won’t have the buying power like Sysco who can come in low, kick the competition out then raise prices once they own the account.
These are my concerns, I don’t know where to get answers from so I am going down every avenue possible. In the end, I hope that every employee who has put there hard work into making Sysco and US Foods who they are today will still have jobs which supports our families and helps fuel our economy.
I look forward to your response in the hopes that you can convince me otherwise.
I thank you for your time.
Frank Rinetti