Grocery Store Worker Contract Negotiation Update: It is time to turn up the heat!
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It is time to turn up the heat!
Our contracts begin to expire May 7, 2022. We have seen workers take strike votes and prepare to strike to get the contracts and workplaces they deserve.
After two years of the pandemic, feeling unsafe, overworked, understaffed, and underpaid, our full member negotiating team met with the employers. We hoped that the CEOs of these big national chains would have learned from the 10 day grocery store worker Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike in Colorado, and the recent near-strike in Southern California. Our union member negotiating team shared our moving stories of unsafe working conditions, inadequate safety standards, and grueling working conditions with the Employers’ representatives.
Our team proposed changes to our contracts that would, among other things: improve the safety at our stores, maintain and enhance our health care plan, increase the trainings we have access to, improve our vacation accrual, and most importantly, provide the pay increases that we deserve as frontline essential workers.
“I have been working for Fred Meyer for over 20 years. Even after working on the frontlines throughout the pandemic, Kroger pays me less than my coworkers, simply because I am classified as the ‘General Merchandise receiver’, while the ‘Grocery receiver’ gets nearly 5 dollars more an hour. How is that fair? These companies have made a lot of profit while we have been working and struggling to be there for our customers and communities.” — Jeff Smith, Fred Meyer, General Merchandise Receiver
“Since the pandemic started, I don’t feel like Kroger takes safety seriously. As grocery store workers, we have all been put into positions where we have to be essentially like social workers — a job that we are neither trained nor equipped to do! Basic health precautions, like mandatory masking, sanitization, and plastic dividers, are all disappearing. Our employers are hanging us out to dry; it’s a big reason there’s so much turnover in our stores. If they want people to stay in this industry, they have to step up and take responsibility for employees’ health & safety at work!” — Amy Dayley Angell, QFC
After our fourth consecutive day of negotiations...
Kroger continues to fail to properly comply with even our most basic information request, which we have a legal right to possess in order to negotiate the wages we deserve. We can not bargain effectively without the information we have requested. Our union member negotiating team’s attempt to get the Employers to agree to a new contract has not made significant progress. What we all want is no secret: more respect, better safety protections, better scheduling, significant pay raises; and to finally do away with the historic inequities that pay some workers a lot less just because of the departments in which they work.
Addressing these issues will help us live better lives and build a better and safer experience for our customers when they shop. The Employers have so far been unwilling to agree to improvements that are needed to reach an agreement. So, it is time for us to take action.
Our union negotiation team is using our time between analyzing proposals building strength - calling through store Contract Action Team phone trees, preparing everyone for action when and should it be needed!
Plan of Action:
We look forward to returning to the bargaining table with Safeway/Albertsons next week on April 13 and 14. We are waiting to hear from Kroger on when they will be available to meet next. Our Richland Fred Meyer bargaining team will be meeting with Kroger next Tuesday April 12 to win a fair first contract.
Informational Pickets on April 26 at your store, or a store near you.
Our customers and communities are willing to stand with us, we just need to reach out and share our stories, and the informational pickets will provide an excellent opportunity to do so. RSVP for an informational picket April 26 at: bit.ly/april26infopicket
Unfair Labor Practice Charges
Members continue to learn to identify unfair labor practices in their workplaces so that we can continue to hold the Employers accountable. These ULPs range from safety and contract violations, to other threats to our well-being at work. These charges provide the force behind an Unfair Labor Practices Strike if left unresolved by the company.
United, Arm-in-Arm
Union staff and members flew out to Colorado (UFCW 7) during the freezing 10-day long grocery store worker strike a few short months ago and Union staff and members went to Southern California during their strike authorization votes last month. In both cases, the solidarity across all our local unions was a key to the success of those contract fights and we were able to share experiences, resources, and power. Now these local Unions - together representing over 80,000 grocery store workers- have pledged their willingness to come here to Washington and stand with us if it becomes necessary to strike.
OUR UNION NEGOTIATIONS TEAM:
Ames Reinhold, Metropolitan Market
Amy Dayley Angell, QFC
Aaron Streepy, Attorney
Cliff Powers, Safeway
Caprii Nakihei, Safeway
Cosmo Villini, Safeway
Eric Renner. UFCW 3000
Enrique Romero, Fred Meyer
Suzi Geffre, Fred Meyer
Faye Guenther, UFCW 3000 President
Jeff Smith, Fred Meyer
J’Nee DeLancey, Town & Country
Joanna Clapham, Fred Meyer
Joe Mizrahi, UFCW 3000 Secretary Treasurer
Kevin Flynn, Albertsons
Kyong Barry, Albertsons
Maggie Breshears, Fred Meyer
Naomi Oligario, Safeway
Roger Yanez, QFC
Sam Dancy, QFC
Sam Kantak, Teamsters 38 Secretary Treasurer
Shawn Hayenga, Metropolitan Market
Tammi Brady, Teamsters 38 President
Wil Peterson, Fred Meyer
