Downtown Dog Lounge Contract Ratified

A week before our one-year union election victory anniversary, Downtown Dog Lounge workers overwhelmingly voted in our first union contract!

Benefits include:

• One additional paid holiday

• Across the board wage increases

• A grievance process

• A Labor/Management Committee (LMC)

• that will meet quarterly to discuss issues at work

• $15 more toward employer healthcare coverage

Make sure you have completed your membership application! join.ufcw.org/join/3000

Downtown Dog Lounge - Vote scheduled

After eight months of negotiations, our union Bargaining Team fully recommends a “YES” vote on our tentative agreement! Drop in to view the proposal and vote to have your voice heard.

South Lake Union
Friday, April 26 @ 2pm—5pm
1011 Mercer St, Seattle, WA 98102

Ballard
Friday, April 26 @ 8am—12pm
824 NW 46th St, Seattle, 98107

Downtown Dog Lounge Bargaining Update: Tentative Agreement Reached!

After 8 long months of bargaining with Downtown Dog Lounge, we have finally reached a tentative agreement fully recommend by our union worker bargaining team!

Bargaining began in September 2023 and your bargaining team has been working hard and focusing on our core issues: safety for dogs and humans, a livable wage, and regular maintenance to the facilities. While it has been a fight, DDL workers have remained strong knowing that winning this first contract is the first step in changing standards in the animal care industry.

This tentative agreement includes:

• Additional holiday with pay

• Grievance procedure

• Just cause language

• And much more…

Details will be sent out soon on voting times and locations. If you have any questions, contact your bargaining team or Union Representative.

The union bargaining team fully recommends a YES vote!

Bargaining team includes: Maribeth Fletcher, Ayla Gersdorf-Duncan, Judy Coy, and Elsie Hedberg.

Downtown Dog Lounge - Another negotiation session and petition delivery!

Downtown Dog Lounge
Another negotiation session and petition delivery!

Our Downtown Dog Lounge worker union Team met with Elise and her legal counsel on February 28 for another session. More back and forth on core issues such as application of seniority, protection from unjust layoffs to name a few.

Our Team also delivered our petition with super majority support, demanding quicker movement at the bargaining table. We look forward to meeting with Management again in March now that they’ve been reminded that we expect a fair contract!

As always the best place for information on the bargaining processes, contract information or anything union in general is our union Bargaining Team.

Downtown Dog Lounge Another week another tough negotiation session

Our Downtown Dog Lounge Bargaining Team met with Elise, Kelly and their lawyer again this Wednesday and had another long session. Progress was made on multiple important issues, such as workplace safety and standards for employee rest areas. However, DDL is still holding out on their unreasonable proposals on union’s staff ability to support workers onsite and be present in the worksites.

More negotiation sessions to come in February! As always the best information on negotiations is from your coworker at the table. Talk to a Team member today if you have any questions.

Downtown Dog Lounge - Another Tough Negotiation Session...

Our DDL worker union team met with Elise and her lawyer on Thursday for negotiations. We moved closer to management on multiple issues, but they continue to hold out. We do have tentative agreements on the need for just cause in any discipline or termination of workers, as well as non-discrimination language. However, management is still playing hardball with important subjects. Talk to a member of our bargaining team today to get the full details.

Downtown Dog Lounge - Another Session at the Negotiation Table!

Your union team met with DDL management and their lawyer again Tuesday, November 14, and dug in on bereavement, vacation, and management’s dress code. After many back and forth we walked away with no deals yet on any of these important subjects. We hope to have a more fruitful session December 2 when we meet again!

Talk to your union bargaining team for updates and more information!

From L to R: Joe Mizrahi (Union Secretary-Treasurer), Ayla (Bather), Maribeth (Night Owl), Grace (Evaluator/Concierge), Judy (Concierge), Elsie (Pack Leader), and Faye Guenther (Union President)

Downtown Dog Lounge - Negotiations go on!

Downtown Dog Lounge
Negotiations go on!

Downtown Dog Lounge Management and legal council met with our union Bargaining Team and continued back and forth on both parties proposals. Management didn’t budge on many of their original positions and maintained their stance on a majority of their initial concepts. Our Team made movement on dog benefits, dress code, and vacation.

We hope Management comes back to the table next week able and willing to make progress.

Downtown Dog Lounge Bargaining Update

Downtown Dog Lounge Bargaining Update

Our Downtown Dog Lounge Union Bargaining Team met with Management’s team (new general manager Kelley Kittle, manager Karene Cambridge, owner Elise Vincentini, and owner’s legal counsel Erik Laiho from Fisher Phillips LLP) for our second bargaining session!

Our team made proposals on sick & safe leave, bereavement leave, holidays, scheduling practices, and safety around working during heat waves.

A note about Initiation fees: UFCW 3000 does not require workers who helped form our Union or had been employed during Union elections to pay an initiation fee. We had proposed that the Union be allowed to hold a new union member orientation for workers to be on-boarded and discount any possible initiation fees in the future—DDL Management rejected these proposals.

Our next bargaining sessions are scheduled for October 24 and 26. Remember the best source of information about negotiations are our Union Bargaining Team members, please reach out to them if you have questions!

Downtown Dog Lounge - We started contract bargaining

Downtown Dog Lounge
We started contract bargaining

Our union Downtown Dog Lounge Bargaining Team met with DDL ownership and Management on September 12, to start the process of contract negotiations. The team was able to make some initial proposals on union representation rights and non-discrimination practices as well as seniority and leaves of absence.

We will continue to bargain on October 3, 24 and 26.

Contract Action Team meeting

Join your coworkers to prepare for upcoming negotiations and how to win a fair contract!

Monday, September 25 @ 6pm
Contact a Bargaining Team member for Zoom meeting details. These details will also be sent to your email.

Downtown Dog Lounge - I have the right to wear this bandana!

I have the right to wear this bandana!

I am protected by the National Labor Relations Act to engage in concerted activity with my coworkers, including wearing union insignias or paraphernalia.

Under Section 7 of the NLRA, I have “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining”

Under Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA, it is an unfair labor practice for an employer “to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7” of the NLRA.

UFCW 3000 Member Story: Allison Hanely

Allison Hanley and a canine Friend

It pays to know your rights! Your employer must follow the discipline and termination language in your union contract, and if you’re organizing your union or bargaining your first union contract, you still have federal labor rights to protect yourself from retaliation. When UFCW 3000 member Allison Hanley was terminated from the newly organized Downtown Dog Lounge, she felt sure it wasn’t fair and immediately called her union rep for support. After working together and looking at the facts, Allison ended up winning an $8,000 settlement in compensation from her employer! Congrats, Allison.

“The UFCW 3000 staff showed amazingly strong support for me in helping me fight for my rights, educating me about the settlement, and providing me the resources to get a new job at a unionized workplace!”—Allison Hanley

If you’re not sure what’s happening to you at work is fair, call us and ask to talk to your union rep, or to a union organizer if you’re not yet a member! UFCW 3000: 1-800-732-1188