Meet Naomi Oligario, UFCW 3000 Delegate to the 2023 UFCW International Convention
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Naomi Oligario, one of your UFCW 3000 delegates to the 2023 UFCW International Convention
Every 5 years, the UFCW International Union holds a convention where union leaders from across the country meet to discuss the future of our union and help set its direction for growth. The 2023 UFCW International Convention will be held in Las Vegas, beginning today, Monday, April 24, 2023 and concluding Friday, April 28, 2023, or until all business is completed and the Convention is adjourned.
Naomi Oligario is an elected delegate to this convention and believes the UFCW International Union must be accountable to its membership and build real power for workers in all essential industries, including grocery, retail, cannabis, packing and processing, and healthcare. The purpose of any union is to build collective worker power to improve safety, wages, and working conditions, and amplify the voices of workers in their workplaces and communities. As a rank-&-file member, she knows how important this fight is.
Naomi Oligario has worked at Port Orchard Safeway for over 37 years! She started as a courtesy clerk before working her way up to produce & front end. Throughout the years, she has trained countless other grocery store workers, all while getting to know customers as they’ve grown up and built families of their own. Naomi is a respected workplace leader, which is why she ran on a slate of candidates from our local committed to fighting for a better UFCW!
UFCW International has decreased spending on critical organizing campaigns and discouraged coordination on our most important bargaining campaigns. This, combined with a large amount of investment in the stock market has been one of the factors that have contributed to the shrinking number of members in the UFCW year after year. This is why our delegation is proposing a set of reforms to invest in organizing, coordinating bargaining with national employers, and modernizing strike authorization so that bureaucracy doesn’t prevent workers from holding their employers accountable at the bargaining table.
Our delegation believes the UFCW must change in five fundamental ways:
UFCW members must have a democratic voice in their International Union.
UFCW must be a powerhouse union that fights for all essential workers.
UFCW must prioritize new organizing and invest in organizing campaigns, organizers, and new winning strategies.
UFCW must commit to coordinated bargaining across the USA and Canada.
UFCW must engage in strategic planning to counter corporate power and meet the challenges that face our movement and our democracy.
“We believe that union leadership should be accountable to the membership – the only way for that to happen is to have leadership be democratically elected from members themselves. We do this as a local union and our democratically elected executive board of over 40 members who work in our diverse industries is part of what makes us strong. We believe that the same should be the case for the UFCW International. The International should be held to the same democratic standard as we are at the local.” – Naomi Oligario, Port Orchard, Safeway, and Ana Alverez, Grandview, Washington Beef
