Reform Candidate Says UFCW Rep Tailed Him for 300 Miles to Thwart Petition Effort

November 04, 2026 / Lisa Xu Enlarge or shrink text login or register to comment You must log in or register to post a comment. In a union that has been headed by one family with no competitive electio

In a union that has been headed by one family with no competitive elections since 1984, a group of grocery workers is organizing for change. But this week, they say, union staff who back the incumbent administration went to outrageous lengths to make sure there’s no election this year either.

On Monday afternoon, Eric Marcuz, a veteran Northern California Safeway worker, stopped at the union office to pick up blank petitions to get on the ballot in the union’s upcoming election. Marcuz is running for president on the At What Cost slate in the 23,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 8-Golden State, one of the largest locals in the union.

To get on the ballot, Marcuz and his slate-mates have to collect 443 petition signatures—2 percent of the local’s active members—in the next two weeks. If they don’t get enough signatures, no election will be held.

After Marcuz picked up the petitions from the local’s Roseville office, he got in his car to drive three hours south to Fresno, to start collecting signatures with another candidate on his slate at a Save Mart store there. (The local spans a 10-hour stretch from Bakersfield up to the Oregon border).

When Marcuz stopped for gas, he said he noticed that a black Dodge Ram pickup stopped as well. When he got back on the freeway, so did the truck.

At the next gas stop, Marcuz spoke to the man driving the truck. It was Jeff Berns, a staff representative for Local 8-GS. His brother, Mark, is also a rep for the union—and the local’s election chair, responsible for overseeing the election.

Marcuz asked Jeff Berns why he was following him. According to Marcuz, Berns said he wanted to make sure that all the members got the “accurate information” that Marcuz’s slate was going to “divide” the union. He said he was going to follow him the entire time Marcuz was out, all the way back to Marcuz’s house in Redding, several hours north. Marcuz jokingly asked him if he needed a place to stay. Berns said he didn’t—because he’d been staying a lot in the Redding area lately himself, which Marcuz said he thought was “creepy” because that’s where Marcuz lives with his family (and is not where Berns lives).

Berns would live up to his promise—following Marcuz for the next 300 miles, through every stop, exit, and U-turn. He even followed him inside the Fresno Save Mart, and camped out for an hour with another union rep while Marcuz ate dinner at a supporter's house 100 miles north in Modesto.

NO COMPETITIVE ELECTIONS

At the gas station, Berns repeated the mantra, “Solidarity works!” That’s the motto of the incumbent president, Jacques Loveall, who is heading the Solidarity Works Team slate in this election.

Loveall was appointed to lead the union in 2004, when his father, Jack Loveall, stepped down. The elder Loveall had held the top office since 1984; when he retired he was one of the highest-paid union officers in the country, earning the equivalent of $1 million today. (The Contra Costa Times reported that he had a $28,000-a-year country club membership and “two pilots on staff to chauffeur him in a private jet.”) Neither father nor son has ever faced a competitive election in the local.

Back on the freeway, Marcuz called a Department of Labor agent whom he had already been in touch with. They had previously spoken about the local’s apparent attempt to cancel the election by merging with a mysterious organization called the Staffing Agencies Federated Employees, an entity which listed one of Loveall’s relatives as its president on its initial filing. The agent told him to report the intimidation to the election chair and tell him to get the rep to back off.

Marcuz then called Mark Berns, the election chair, who he said told him he would talk to staff about acting in a professional manner.

MORE REPS

However, when Marcuz arrived at the Save Mart store in Fresno to begin collecting petition signatures, he and another slatemate, Mike Romero, said that three union reps were waiting for them, including Jeff Berns. One of the others was John Micheletti, a longtime Local 8 vice president. Far from being called off, they said, the intimidation had actually intensified.

Marcuz and Romero said the reps interfered with every conversation they attempted to have with workers about signing their nomination petition. The very first worker they engaged about signing, a longtime acquaintance of Romero’s, fled once a rep entered the conversation and became confrontational. The worker did not sign the petition.

“They were everywhere inside the store,” said Marcuz. At least one of the interactions was filmed on a phone.

Marcuz said that Berns told him, “I’m going to make sure everyone knows who you are and not to sign that.” And additionally, “We’re going to invalidate every single signature that you get.”

It is illegal for union staff and officers to campaign on union time. Berns said he was on vacation.

Romero, who has worked at Save Mart for 30 years, said, “This is the most I’ve seen of union staff in six months.” He said a fourth rep turned up after Marcuz left.

SEEN THIS BEFORE

These tactics—following opposition candidates and invalidating signatures—have both been alleged by previous members of the local who attempted to challenge the Lovealls.

A Contra Costa Times article published in 2004 reported that supporters of Loveall’s father got members to rescind their signatures to keep dissident candidate Jack Nordby off the ballot in 1997. A book written by then-Local 588 reform activist Doug Slaydon states that as many as 150 signatures were removed. (Local 588 merged with another local to form Local 8-GS in 2006—postponing a potential competitive election that year.)

Nordby also alleged that he was tailed by a pickup truck while collecting ballot signatures, followed around by union reps in stores, and once, chased in his car while driving his wife and two daughters to church.

The Contra Costa Times also reported allegations that Local 588 staffers staked out the home of a member of UFCW Local 1179 who had led a successful rank-and-file opposition campaign to an attempted merger of the two locals and “tailed him in union cars.” “In June 1994,” reported the Times, the member, Michael Ross-Smith, “was rear-ended in Walnut Creek by three UFCW 588 business agents following him too closely in a white 1993 Ford Thunderbird leased to the union, according to a traffic collision report from the Walnut Creek police department.”

TAILED FOR SEVEN HOURS

Marcuz and Romero said they quickly realized that they wouldn’t be able to collect petition signatures with this level of interference. Marcuz’s next stop was going to be to drop off petition forms with a supporter at the Turlock Safeway, over an hour to the north, but he made plans to meet the supporter at their house in Modesto instead.

When Marcuz left the parking lot of the Fresno store, Romero said three vehicles followed him. Romero also realized that one of the reps had stayed behind, and he became worried that he would be followed as well. He drove around for a long time before going home, to make sure he wasn’t followed.

Marcuz, meanwhile, said that Berns and Micheletti followed him for 90 miles, all the way to Modesto. They stayed parked outside the house while Marcuz ate burritos with the supporter—finally leaving after an hour, after 8 p.m.

"It's crazy that they would literally go two hours out of their way to make sure nobody else can talk to the employees,” Romero said.

Marcuz said he almost canceled his plans to stay alone in a hotel in Roseville overnight, worried he would be tailed there, and contemplated driving for four more hours home to Redding. In total, he estimates he was followed for seven hours, over a distance of 300 miles.

SCARE TACTICS?

Section 610 of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) forbids the threat or use of force or violence to restrain, coerce, or intimidate union members from exercising their right to nominate candidates or to vote in union officer elections, while Section 401(e) bars “improper interference” in the rights of union members to run for and support candidates for local union office.

“It makes me think of everyone that has known there’s been a need for change in the past, and has been scared away from pursuing it,” Marcuz said. While Marcuz and his slate are standing strong, he said, “this might work. They might intimidate and scare enough people out of participating.”

In the morning, Marcuz filed a police report with the Roseville Police Department alleging stalking and harassment, citing the time and distance he was followed and the behavior he encountered in the Fresno store.

Local 8 did not respond to requests for comment.

Petition signatures are due November 17, and ballots will be mailed November 21.