In an effort to make more progress than our previous virtual bargaining sessions, our fellow union workers traveled by bus, car, and airplane from afar to meet at the UFCW 3000 Des Moines office. Management joined us virtually via ZOOM to respond to the proposal we provided at our last bargaining session on July 31. The team will continue to encourage Management to meet in person for bargaining in hopes to get to an agreement that we can recommend to members.

We had a chance to review Management’s economic proposal and ask a lot of questions that needed answers before we responded with a counter proposal. The Employer’s proposal uses market analysis and proposes market adjustments based on job classification. Staff would see a one-time raise between 4% and 15%. A few staff members receive a one time bonus of 2% bonus. We are now researching the impacts of their proposal in order to present a counter-proposal before our next session on September 18 in hopes Management will be able to prep a response to start the day.

Management finally delivered their latest non-economic proposals. We were happy to see a proposal increasing bereavement leave from 3 to 5 days, but disappointed to see Management wants to start the bargaining process all over again in the Spring with a proposed contract that would expire in less than a year and that the “act of god” clause (also known as force majeure), which would allow HR to void the contract in the case of a power outage etc., is still included in Management’s proposal.

Finally, our team was willing to compromise on many of our original proposals for the sake of making some progress without compromising our position on many other things. We added a new article addressing vaccines and continue to push our proposal requiring PPE be covered by Planned Parenthood. We will not agree to a less than one-year contract or to any language allowing the contract to be negated for any reason. We’re satisfied with the progress we’ve made and look forward to the September 18 session.

Please reach out to our bargaining team or Union Representative Charlie King with any questions or concerns.