Marlene Padilla has worked in the grocery industry since 1999, starting at the Foodland stores in Hawaii. “Being a single parent and working close to home with great hours helped me with my decision to work in the grocery industry,” she says. At Foodland, she was promoted to meat wrapper, and when she moved to Seattle she started working for Safeway. After nine years, when one of Marlene’s meat managers left to work at PCC and suggested she come work there, too, she decided to go for it. She respected him because, as she puts it, he “gave me a lot of respect as a female, not just a fixture.”

When Marlene started at PCC in 2014, she knew that it was a risk starting with a new employer and a new group of coworkers: “I had to work harder to prove I had it in me, not because I knew someone. I’m still working in a man's world.” She showed her coworkers how dependable and trustworthy she was and has been working there ever since. She wants coworkers to know: “I always got your back.”

Away from work, Marlene enjoys reading, being a single mother, a grandparent, a Seattle Seahawks fan, and hanging out with her cat Shadow. “My three children and two grandchildren keep me grounded,” she says, “as well as all the meat department guys I work with.”

Negotiations with PCC for a new contract this year have required more workplace actions from PCC workers than ever before. As Marlene and her coworkers have discussed the bargain and taken action, she reminds coworkers about all the important parts of a union contract—the bargain can’t be about “the payscale and nothing else,” she says. Her top priority? ”Maintaining good health benefits.”

Marlene has taken an interest in attending PCC negotiations as an observer. “It’s important for us as members to see how the language in our contract is fought for!” Marlene is a strong woman and union member; her coworkers are lucky to have her standing with them in this bargain. Mahalo, Marlene!