UFCW 3000 Urges Washington State Congressional Delegation To Call on Joe Biden to Step Aside For A New Generation of Leadership

July 18, 2024

Dear Washington State Congressional Delegation,

As the largest private sector Union in Washington State, representing 55,000 members in grocery, healthcare, cannabis, processing, and retail, UFCW 3000 is dedicated to our members in their workplaces, in their communities, and at home.

The accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration are nothing short of historic; from investing in public infrastructure, taking on corporate monopolies, appointing pro-worker appointees to the NLRB and FTC, and being the first President to join striking workers on a picket line. While President Biden has a record of accomplishments we can all be proud of, we cannot afford to go backwards when it comes to the rights of workers to organize, and the important protections we’ve won during President Biden’s term in office.

What’s at stake in this election is the future of our middle class. In Donald Trump’s war on Unions and on our democracy, working people across the country stand the most to lose.

If President Biden continues to demonstrate that he is unable to effectively campaign, and subsequently loses in November, the advances workers have made will be at immediate risk in a second Trump administration.

Unions cannot sit on the sidelines while working people are under attack. Working people need a leader who can effectively deliver a strong message between now and November, and then implement that vision over the next four years. We call on President Biden to pass the torch to the next generation. He has much to celebrate over his career of accomplishments fighting alongside working people, but it is time for him to retire with dignity, and campaign as hard as we all will for an alternative candidate. The stakes are simply too high to do otherwise.

We urge you, members of our Washington State Congressional Delegation, to call on President Joe Biden to step aside for a new generation of leadership.

Faye Guenther, President UFCW 3000
&
Joe Mizrahi, Secretary-Treasurer UFCW 3000

American Rescue Plan: How It Benefits Essential Workers

On Thursday, March 11, President Joe Biden signed the COVID relief bill into law. This will provide millions of workers and families with the urgent relief they need as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. 

“In grocery stores and meatpacking plants across the country, millions of essential workers are on the frontlines as they face the daily threat of COVID infection to protect our food supply during this crisis. With the American Rescue Plan, these brave frontline workers will receive the support they have earned as they continue to put their own health at risk so that our families can put food on the table.” -UFCW President Marc Perrone

What’s in the American Rescue Plan for UFCW Members:

• Relief Payments: Provides $1,400 in relief payments per person for individuals making less than $75,000 and married couples making less than $150,000. along with additional tax relief for working families with children. 

• Childcare: Includes $15 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and allows those funds to be used by essential workers. 

• COVID Testing and Vaccine: Provides funding towards testing, contact tracing, PPE, and vaccine distribution.

• Health and safety: Provides $200 million for pandemic-related worker protection activities at the Labor Department, half of which would go to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to support OSHA enforcement and worker training in high-risk sectors such as meat processing, health care, correctional facilities and agriculture.

• Extends unemployment benefits: Extends pandemic-related unemployment assistance that was set to expire on March 14, including the current $300 supplement to unemployment benefits, for another six months through Sept. 6. Provides that the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits received by taxpayers making less than $150,000 will not be subject to federal taxation.

• Retirement Security: Strengthens the entire pension system by helping pension plans that are in danger of failing.