Safeway employees across Alberta are sounding the alarm about Sobeys, their parent label owned by Empire Company Limited. Through its “Truck You, Sobeys” campaign, the United Food and Commercial Workers union accuses Sobeys of cutting delivery routes and reducing full-time jobs to protect profit margins — moves that hurt both workers and customers. This public dispute confirms what many Albertans suspect: Sobeys is putting profit before people.
That same profit-first mindset shows up nationally. At last week’s Empire shareholders meeting in Nova Scotia, executives focused on financial statements and approved lavish compensation. The company’s top four executives earned between $2.4 and $3.4 million each in the past year, and CEO Michael Medline’s total compensation climbed from $7.9 million in 2024 to $8.8 million in 2025, even as Empire reported $700 million in net earnings.
Meanwhile, Sobeys has quietly walked back its 2016 promise to sell only cage-free eggs by the end of 2025. After retracting the deadline in 2021, the company has offered no updated plan or timeline. Sobeys’ latest sustainability report even highlights a shift towards slightly larger but still cruel “enriched” cages, directly contradicting the company’s pledge. Nearly a decade later, 80% of hens in Sobeys’ supply chain remain confined in cages, with no end in sight.
This isn’t just about animal suffering; it’s about corporate integrity. Sobeys benefited from positive publicity when it vowed publicly to end extreme confinement, yet the company has shown no such transparency in breaking that promise. Whether squeezing Alberta workers or failing to honour national animal-welfare promises, Sobeys’ pattern is consistent: profits first, keeping promises later — if ever.
Sobeys has the resources and influence to lead on both worker rights and animal welfare. Instead of rewarding executives and delaying reform, the company should respect its employees, keep its commitments and publish a concrete, time-bound plan to eliminate cages from its supply chain. Anything less confirms what Canadian consumers and employees of Safeway (a Sobeys subsidiary) in Alberta already know: Sobeys is putting profits over people and animals, and that must change.
Rhi Henkelman is a Campaigns Specialist at Mercy For Animals. Based in Toronto, Rhi brings leads public awareness and accountability campaigns that push Canada’s largest food companies to adopt and enforce stronger animal welfare standards.
