UFCW 21 Winter 2020 Newsletter: The Power of Unity
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UFCW 21 Winter 2020 Newsletter Articles:
Featured
Most Recent News & Updates
“They gave us next to nothing, so we are giving them nothing but pickets!” – Emily Hunter
Following the employer’s unacceptable conduct during our previous bargaining session, and the significant distance remaining between the parties, our Union Bargaining Team asked the employer if they would agree to request assistance from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). The employer agreed, and an FMCS mediator was available to join us beginning with this session.
The time has come to make your voices heard! We encourage all Radiant Care workers to attend our scheduled vote meeting to review the full details of our new tentative agreement, ask questions, and cast your ballot!
We still have not gotten wages back from management, though we did discuss a few of the economic sections of our contract: namely after receiving one of the aforementioned underwhelming counterproposals regarding a memorandum of understanding for RNs who perform SANE exams. Which the Employer returned the same iteration of the Memorandum of Understanding proposal they brought to us more than one year ago; which only speaks to the examination itself.
As wildfires rip through our region and smoke chokes the air, UFCW 3000 members, families, and communities face evacuations, and loss of homes and livelihoods.
Some workers could experience partial or total work closures creating difficult circumstances surrounding hours, pay, and life stability
As we navigate this emergency, please remember the union and community resources that can help. Also, please review important information below that can help keep you safe and enforce your rights at work.
We are scheduling a vote on whether to accept or reject an LOU (Letter of Understanding) that would change the language of Article 3.4 in our contract. This is regarding the pay rate for working on Saturday and Sunday.
We asked Management about their low wage proposals for 2027 and 2028. They responded that they weren’t focusing on cost-of-living increases and cited that people want to work at this destination employer because it has such a good culture. What do you think?
The rest of the day built off of that momentum and we were able to secure an agreement with the Employer that is fully recommended by our Union Bargaining Team! This offer includes a 10.5% wage increase over the life of the contract as well as increases and expansions to multiple premium pay options! We also were able to secure improvements to our scheduling language, retroactive pay, and compensation for those who are at the top of the scale.
“We had a productive bargaining meeting and reached several tentative agreements, which is an encouraging sign of the progress we’re making together. While we still have work to do on the non-economic items, the discussion remained constructive. We are hopeful that we will continue building on this momentum and make further progress at our next bargaining session.” – Clari Ramos, Nutrition Pharmacist
Yesterday we met with the Employer for the second time. It was their turn to get back to us on our proposals. After their presentation our team worked the rest of the afternoon to respond to their proposals. See the tentative agreements (TAs) we've reached so far (please keep in mind that nothing is final until all members vote and approved the Contract).
Our member-led Bargaining Team met with representatives from First and Goal on Wednesday, July 22, to continue negotiations for our first union contract.
We are set to meet the Employer again on August 6 and 27. You must become part of this process and ensure that your committee gets the strength and stamina to finish this contract negotiation with the best outcome possible regardless of the hurdles that they are facing at the table.
We believe outsourcing our union jobs to robots will erode our unity in the worksite, reduce available hours for those who need them to pay the rent, and threaten the stability of our benefits.
Last Friday we met with the Employer for the first time. The Employer presented their initial set of non-economic proposals. Our Bargaining Committee studied their proposals, formulated counterproposals, and introduced an additional non-economic set of proposals.
On Monday, July 20, following a series of well-attended vote meetings, our MultiCare Capital Medical Center Professionals Bargaining Team is overjoyed to announce that our First Ever Union Contract has been ratified!
Through perseverance, dedication, and solidarity, we have transformed MultiCare Capital Medical Center and are proudly UNION REPRESENTED PROFESSIONALS!
We started our sixth day of union contract negotiations with proposals in our court, which we began with a new cadence that we thought a might help our discussions get across and reach the Employer. While we did reach a few new Tentative Agreements (a three-year duration on our contract, clarity around suggesting new premium-eligible certifications through Labor Management Committee, and the removal of some old language referencing an effective date from three years in the past…), I’m sure you can imagine, these aren’t the topics of discussion which our Bargaining Team and coworkers at SJMC care the most about.
On July 16, newly organized members voted to ratify their new contract at Super 1 Ellensburg!
We now have contract that gives us a stronger voice on the job, and we can now stand together with our Union siblings from Spokane in our next bargaining cycle.
Our new Union contract includes several workplace protections, as well as increased wages, premium wages, a union wage scale with wage escalators between each step of the scale, a pension, and stronger safety language! All of those provisions go into effect immediately.
On July 17, workers at Payless Foods in Freeland voted and overwhelmingly ratified our new Grocery and Meat Contracts! Our member led Bargaining Team negotiated a two year contract that gets us back to the table sooner to keep ahead of inflation.
Our Union Bargaining Team met with the Employer again on July 16, to continue negotiations for our next Union contract. Given the Employer’s conduct during recent sessions, we did not expect significant progress. Unfortunately, we were proven right.
On Tuesday and Wednesday July 14th and 15th our Union bargaining committee and FEEST management met again to continue negotiating your first Collective Bargaining Agreement. We made progress on several issues and were able to come to agreements on the following: Immigration; Gender Identity; Performance Review; Whistleblower Policy; Secure Workplace; and No Strike No Lockout. We are awaiting FEEST’s full PTO counter proposals, and a wage counter proposal to move forward with the economics of our bargaining.
