“Labor cannot stand still. It must not retreat. It must go on, or go under. The most important word in the language of the working class is solidarity.” — Jose Munzo Lazo, Certified Medical Assistant
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We bargained again on Tuesday, July 16 and continued to make progress towards a final agreement. With most issues resolved, we primarily discussed wages, and continued to push for additional increases to ensure our wages remain competitive for the life of our new contract.
Our next bargaining session is scheduled for July 30.
"We are getting close to an agreement, but management still needs to close the gap on wages" — Joelyn Martin
Our Bargaining Team: Joelyn Martin, Angelica Acevedo Arreola, Wendy Rivas
We bargained again on Tuesday and were able to pass multiple proposals to management on issues including wages, certification pay, continuing education, and holiday scheduling rules.
While we were somewhat disheartened that management's proposals showed only incremental improvements on wages, we were able to make further progress in other areas.
We will meet again on the 16th and expect management to provide us with a new economic proposal.
"Today was productive, and we look forward to focusing in on our top economic issues"
— Wendy Rivas
Our Bargaining Team: Joelyn Martin, Angelica Acevedo Arreola, Wendy Rivas
Our team met with management on Tuesday (6/3) and continued to discuss non-economic issues such as layoff protections, seniority, temporary employees, low census and more. While there is still much to be done, we were pleased with the pace of negotiations and are hopeful that management will continue to display the same collaborative attitude we saw today.
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When we started bargaining back in November 2020, management made it clear that they intended to give us more of the same in our first contract. They wanted to have all the power over our work, at the expense of us the workers. With a lot of hard work and the support of all of our co-workers, we were able to push back on management in order to demand and secure a very strong full contract! This includes:
Monumental wage initial increases for across the board effective upon ratification
Replacing the merit raise system with wage matrix that includes steps, where everyone is guaranteed two wage increases (combined average of 4.1%) every single year
Guaranteeing that everyone’s wage placement is based on the same transparent factors.
A retro bonus equal to 3.5% of our wages
Juneteenth as a holiday
Severence pay
Increases to the per diem premium for current per diems to 12%
Protections for every worker against unfair discipline
A robust grievance process we can use to make sure our contract is respected
The same full Union protections we would see in a standard Union contract
Language protecting the various benefits that worked for us and enhancing the ones that didn’t
And much more!
The bargaining committee recommends a “YES” vote on July 6!
Our Urgent Care Medical Assistant Bargaining Team: Wendy Rivas, Angie Acevedo, Joey Martin
Online vote is scheduled for Tuesday, July 6
We will be voting online via “SimplyVoting” on Tuesday, July 6 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM. You will be receiving an email from UFCW 21 via “SimplyVoting” with your unique login information. If you do not receive an email by Tuesday July 6, check your spam folder first.
If you have still not received an email, contact your rep Christie Harris @ 206-436-6606.
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.
