On Wednesday, February 26 both the Administrator’s Unit and the Computer Operators and Distribution Unit ratified their contracts by super-majorities of those voting in each group!
Read MoreAfter months of negotiations, our Union Bargaining Team has reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with Northwest Administrators!
Read MoreWhile members previously voted in December on a general strike authorization, this second vote is specifically related to authorizing an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike in response to NWA’s illegal conduct at the bargaining table.
Read MoreAfter over a month has passed since our last bargaining date, and a strike was authorized, our Bargaining Team was scheduled to meet with the Employer on January 30 and 31 to resume negotiations.
Read MoreYesterday (December 19) an online vote was held on the last offer on the table from Management at the end of the day from our last bargaining session December 9.
Read MoreYesterday (December 19) an online vote was held on the last offer on the table from Management at the end of the day from our last bargaining session December 9.
Read MoreUnfortunately, we were not able to reach agreement on an offer that we felt we could recommend! By 6pm, the furthest Management had moved was as follows:
Read MoreUnless significant progress is made in our next session, we will be recommending a “NO” vote on the contract, and a separate “YES” vote to authorize a strike should our Bargaining Team feel they need to call for one in the future. We will be able to answer questions about the vote in our pre-vote meeting that will be held on December 12.
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Our Union Bargaining Team met with Northwest Administrators Management for three joint sessions November 18-20. We have come to Tentative Agreements on almost all outstanding non-economic issues.
After our eighth pass at an economic package proposal Management has only been able to move from 1.25% increases on wages to 1.5% in each year. This is far less than the 3% each year we received in the last collective bargaining agreement!
We will have one more bargaining session on December 9th but have messaged to the Employer that we will be holding a vote on the offer that we receive by the end of that day.
If we cannot recommend the offer on the table by the end of that day, we will be recommending a NO vote. We do, however, hope Management will bring us an offer we can recommend.
December 19 we will hold an online contract vote with details to be announced shortly.
On Wednesday, October 16 we met with Management and bargained over some remaining non-economic issues. We did reach a few Tentative Agreements on these items.
Read MoreOur Bargaining Team had two full days of negotiations with the Employer on Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4. In response to management’s slow walking on wages so far, we delivered our petition for a fair contract, which was signed by nearly 85% of NWA bargaining unit members! This is a strong signal to management that NWA workers are willing to take collective action to win the wages and benefits we deserve.
Read MoreJoin us for a Contract Action Team meeting on October 3 at 6:00pm. We will recap how bargaining went and discuss plans for additional actions following our petition delivery as we increase the pressure on management to deliver a fair contract!
Read MoreOur Bargaining Team met with Management this Monday, August 19 to begin exchanging economic proposals. We passed an initial proposal over to Management, got some verbal responses, and revised our proposals slightly.
After our second proposal, Management returned a very sparse one-page response to us just before the end of the day.
We hope to arrange Contract Action Team meetings between now and our next bargaining sessions. The purpose of these meetings will be to discuss with our coworkers how we might best organize to win the strongest contract we can. We will be inviting all of you to join this discussion.
Due to availability issues, Management was not able to schedule any further sessions with us until October. We are currently scheduled for October 3, 4, 16, and 18. We hope something else opens before then, that said.
Bargaining Team: Chad Gronsky, Distribution; Sierra Cunningham, Payroll Audit; Grace Tsuchikawa, Health and Welfare; Karolin Lund, Accounting and Eligibility; Lulu Morgan, Pension; Iva Johnson, Contract Review (not pictured)
We met with Management this Tuesday and Wednesday as we begin negotiations towards a new Union Contract. Despite a brief interruption from an unexpected fire alarm, we were pleased that management seemed prepared to meaningfully engage with our concerns, and we were able to make progress in several areas, including:
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On May 13, many members at NW Administrators were dismissed from work early due to a system outage. UFCW 3000 is currently investigating the situation and has requested additional information from Management to determine the extent of the problem. While we wait for that information, it is important that you are aware of the following:
You are entitled to a minimum of 4 hours pay for any day on which you report to work and are dismissed early. If you were dismissed before completing 4 hours of work, you should be paid for a minimum of 4 hours.
Management cannot compel you to use annual leave to cover the time lost following dismissal. If you already put in for annual leave for the lost hours and would prefer to take the time as unpaid, you should inform your manager as soon as possible in writing of this decision.
Likewise, you cannot be compelled to work “make up” time later in the week as a result of this early dismissal. The contract allows for simple leave without pay in these situations, and the absence cannot be counted against you for attendance purposes. If you feel that Management is pressuring you to work additional hours, please contact your Rep Jack Crow at 206-436-6614.
Finally, it appears that some impacted union members were allowed to continue working on tasks which were not directly impacted by the outage. If you were dismissed despite notifying your Manager that there was available work which you could complete, please reach out to your rep so that we can assess the situation.
If you have questions, or have additional information you would like to share, please contact your Rep Jack Crow at 206-436-6614.
We’re excited to announce that members at Northwest Administrators overwhelmingly voted “YES” to ratify both the Administrative and Computer Operators contracts! The new contracts include:
Supplemental Wage Payment (Bonus) equivalent to 50 hours of pay,
3.00% wage increase retroactively paid back to September 1, 2021,
Significantly improved layoff and recall language ensuring that, when facing a layoff, employees shall be released by inverse seniority and then returned to work before hiring new employees.
Strong protection against potential increases to the cost of healthcare,
And more!
Please reach out to Union Rep Rhonda Fisher-Ivie @ (206) 436-6584 if you have any questions about the new contracts.
Your Bargaining Team has reached a tentative agreement with Management on new collective bargaining agreements for both units at Northwest Administrators. Your Bargaining Team unanimously recommends a “YES” vote!
This agreement includes:
Supplemental Wage Payment (Bonus) equivalent to 50 hours of pay after ratification,
Higher wage increases compared to our last vote retroactively paid back to September 1, 2021,
Significantly improved layoff and recall language ensuring that, when facing a layoff, employees shall be released by inverse seniority and then returned to work before hiring new employees.
Strong protection against potential increases to the cost of healthcare,
And more
The full details of the offer will be made available during our online vote meeting on Thursday October 21.
Northwest Administrators Online Meeting
Thursday October 21
6:00PM
Contact your Bargaining Team or Union Rep for call-in details. Details will be also emailed out.
It’s extremely important that members attend the zoom meeting to get a full understanding of the employer’s offer and have your questions answered. However, voting will not take place at this meeting.
We will be voting online via “SimplyVoting” on Friday, October 22 from 6:00AM to 8:00PM. You will be receiving an email from UFCW 21 via “SimplyVoting” with your unique login information.
If you do not receive an email to vote on Friday October 22, then please reach out to Union Representative Rhonda Fisher-Ivie at (206) 436-6584 no later than 5PM on the day of the vote to provide an updated email address.
After over a year of negotiations with Northwest Administrators, Management has given the Union an offer to send to a vote. Despite significant process made in recent weeks, our Bargaining Team is recommending a “NO” vote.
Healthcare is one of the primary reasons we cannot recommend this offer. The current cost of our healthcare plan to the Employer is $4.65/hr, and in their latest offer, the Employer is only willing to pay for increases up to $4.86/hr. Unfortunately, there is a good chance that healthcare costs will exceed the Employer’s cap, which means you’ll pay for the difference.
This is frustrating since in 2019, the Employer absorbed a $0.21/hr savings on healthcare and now they are unwilling to protect their Employees from a possible increase? Our Bargaining Team could not recommend an offer that places so much liability onto employees, with a high chance of healthcare costs chipping away at our wages.
Our Bargaining Team have other concerns with the offer that will be shared during the online meeting next week. Show the Employer what you think about their offer by VOTING NO!
The full details of the offer will be made available during our online vote meeting on Wednesday, August 25.
It’s extremely important that members attend the Zoom meeting to get a full understanding of the employer’s offer and have your questions answered. However, voting will not take place at this meeting.
We will be voting online via “SimplyVoting” on Friday, August 27 from 6:00AM to 8:00PM. You will be receiving an email from UFCW 21 via “SimplyVoting” with your unique login information.
In order to vote, everyone needs to make sure their personal email is up to date in our records. If you did not receive this announcement via email, please visit ufcw21.org/update-your-information. If you do not receive an email to vote on Friday, August 27, then please reach out to Union Representative Rhonda Fisher-Ivie at (206) 436-6584 no later than 5PM on the day of the vote to provide an updated email address.
Northwest Administrators out of state — out of touch
Your Bargaining Team met with management again on Friday, July 23. Unfortunately, we were not able to reach an agreement as management continues to demand that the Union accept 0.00% wage increases for 2020 and 2021.
Management’s proposal would leave us behind the out of this world cost-of-living, which has only been accelerated by historic inflation rates. For the subsequent years management is offering only a combined 3.5% wage increase by 2023.
Management has tried to use out-of-state agreements to justify their proposal while simultaneously rejecting the Union’s Seattle area market data, which shows how out of touch with reality management proposal is. We reminded the employer that we’re bargaining in Seattle and the Union is not interested in reviewing out-of-state data.
We are meeting with the employer next on August 13.
We are the Union. The members of UFCW 3000 are over 50,000 members working in grocery, retail, health care, meat packing, cannabis, & other industries across Washington state, north-east Oregon, and northern Idaho. UFCW 3000 is a chartered member of UFCW International with over 1.4 million workers in North America.
To build a powerful Union that fights for economic, political and social justice in our workplaces and in our communities.
