The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union on Feb. 12 launched the “Affordable Groceries and Good Jobs Campaign,” a national effort to ban surveillance pricing and electronic shelf labels in grocery stores while targeting artificial intelligence-driven technology encroachment.
The campaign arrives alongside federal legislation introduced by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) that would prohibit price gouging and surveillance pricing in retail food stores, with exceptions for promotions like senior or student discounts.
The Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act also would require disclosure of facial recognition technology and ban electronic shelf labels in large grocery stores, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.
“Americans are hurting under the affordability crisis, and UFCW members see the pain in their faces every time they enter the grocery store,” said UFCW International President Milton Jones. “Our members also feel it themselves when they shop for their families.
“We are starting this national campaign to stop corporations from being able to change prices in front of their eyes just because they live in the wrong zip code or are a new parent. We are proud to work with elected officials in every part of the country to lead the fight for affordable groceries and good jobs because that is what our members want.”
The House companion legislation is led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR) with 50 co-sponsors.
State legislative push
State lawmakers across the country have joined UFCW in the effort. The union’s model legislation for states requires the use of analog or paper shelf pricing in any retail establishment larger than 10,000 square feet and prohibits surveillance pricing based on unique characteristics.
Legislators in New York, Oklahoma, Washington, Arizona, Nebraska, Maryland and Tennessee have introduced UFCW’s surveillance pricing and electronic shelf label legislation. Additional states will do so throughout 2026.
“As Americans are struggling to afford basic necessities, corporations are collecting our personal data to extract every cent they can to pad their pockets,” said New York State Sen. Michael Gianaris, deputy majority leader of the State Senate.
“We cannot allow corporate abuse of New Yorkers, and that starts by addressing the predatory practice of surveillance pricing.”
Oklahoma State Rep. Cyndi Munson, Democratic leader of the House, said working families struggle to afford groceries.
“They don’t need to be charged more for the same goods and services as others based on unfair personalized algorithmic and surveillance pricing,” Munson said.
“This bill would address this issue before it continues to spiral out of control and places more burden on Oklahomans who are just trying to feed themselves and their family. I will not allow large corporations to exploit working Oklahomans to increase their profits.”
Washington State Rep. Mary Fosse, deputy majority floor leader, framed the issue as follows: “This legislation is actually pretty simple. If two people are in the same store buying the same item, they should pay the same price.”
“Large retailers are investing in AI, algorithms and data systems that can change prices instantly, individually and secretly. We need to stop the rip-off at the register before these practices become the norm. Technology should serve workers and consumers, not exploit them.”
Worker perspective
UFCW Local 400 member Jane St. Louis, a grocery store worker in Damascus, Maryland, said she has noticed customers cutting back.
“Their grocery carts are smaller, and they’re not buying the same products they used to,” St. Louis said. “Surveillance pricing and ESLs will only make that worse if companies are jacking up prices on their customers one by one.
“ESLs threaten to take work away from workers, while leaving us to handle rightfully angry customers. This legislation does the right thing and bans these practices.”
On Feb. 11, 70 UFCW members met with legislators in Albany, New York, to ask them to lower grocery prices and support a ban on electronic shelf labels.
Electronic shelf label deployment
Electronic shelf labels enable companies to change prices rapidly. When combined with AI tools and data collection of surveillance pricing, the technology creates dynamic pricing capabilities.
Walmart has announced it will bring electronic shelf labels to 2,300 stores by 2026. Kroger began using the technology in dozens of stores in 2018, expanding to 500 in 2023. Schnucks is working to expand electronic shelf labels to all 115 stores by 2025.
The systems could replace the work of grocery clerks or leave them to explain pricing changes to customers, according to UFCW.
[RELATED: Walmart Using Digital Shelf Labels For Better Outcomes]
About UFCW
UFCW represents 1.2 million employees across the U.S. and Canada, including more than 800,000 workers across North America in grocery, meatpacking, food processing, healthcare, cannabis, retail and other essential industries.