Uwajimaya Meat Contract Ratified!
/On April 27, our new Meat contract was ratified! On a great day of voting, Meat workers overwhelmingly ratified a contract that highlights the value that Union workers bring to Uwajimaya.
Read MoreIn our last contract negotiations, our union won the largest wage increases that we’ve seen, secured a transition to the stable our union health plan through the UFCW Spokane healthcare Trust, and ensured funding to keep our pension plan dependable for retirement. Our NE Oregon contracts recently expired, and our union is prioritizing a new contract that builds upon our previous wins.
After four long days of bargaining with the Employer and countless hours of preparation, our Bargaining Team reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) that we are excited to bring back to our members!
While our initial bargaining sessions were largely positive and relatively low stakes, we now have reached the meat and potato economic proposals that our unit cares about most. This is often the most challenging stage of bargaining – especially when bargaining a first contract. An example from today: in response to our extensively researched wage proposal, the company stated "we don't want to change how we do things" without further discussion.
As 2,500 UFCW 3000 members at MultiCare continue preparations for contract bargaining to begin early next year, there are several upcoming opportunities to gather, discuss and contribute. First off, a big thanks to all who completed the bargaining surveys during August and September. That information will be crucial in our assessing priorities before bargaining.
After holding nomination votes for the Labor Management Advisory Committee (LMAC) from September 21–25, 2026, and then holding nominee votes for Ballard, Central District, and Issaquah on October 21, 2026, we are happy to announce your committee members!
This agreement comes after more than six months of bargaining, an informational picket, federal mediation, a strike pledge campaign, and a strike authorization vote that showed CommonSpirit members were ready to fight for a better contract
After more than a month since our last session, our Union Bargaining Team; Alyssa and Oliver were able to reconvene with the employer on October 19 to receive their economic counter proposal.
Join us via Zoom on Tuesday, October 20, at 6:30 PM to learn more about the tentative agreement reached between our Union Bargaining Team and CommonSpirit.
“At a time when workers are struggling to keep up with sky-high prices for groceries, housing, health care, and other basic necessities, we cannot afford to give a tax cut to the wealthiest people in our state,” said Sam Dancy, UFCW 3000 Executive Board Vice President and Grocery Bargaining Team Member
Our member-led Bargaining Team met with representative from Puzzle Break to lay the foundation for the negotiations of our first union contract. We discussed guidelines around how proposals will be passed, Bargaining Team availability and our desire to have consistent and timely bargaining dates moving forward.
After months of difficult negotiations and a powerful show of solidarity, we have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract! Thanks to our collective strength, we secured significant improvements, including:
Please join us in person at the UFCW 3000 Des Moines office for Contract Action Team meetings on the following dates. We will be meeting in person at the union office, but for those who cannot join in person there will be an online option. During these meetings, will be sharing updates as well as creating picket signs for an upcoming info picket.
After months of difficult negotiations, a powerful informational picket, and an overwhelming strike authorization vote, our Union Bargaining Team fought late into the night on October 8 and reached a tentative agreement on a new contract!
The Nominations are in, now it’s time to vote for who will represent you and your coworkers from Ballard, Central District, and Issaquah PCCs on the newly formed PCC Labor Management Advisory Committee (LMAC). Secure online voting will take place Wednesday, October 21 from 8am to 8pm. Every PCC store elects one LMAC representative, you may only vote on a nominee from your own store.
Following a series of highly attended vote meetings on Monday, October 5, union technical workers at St. Joseph Medical Center voted nearly unanimously to:
Reject CommonSpirit’s subpar contract offer
Authorize a STRIKE
“We set the stage and gave our comprehensive proposal letting the employer know that our priorities are to win wages that we deserve, improve our transportation benefits, win immigration protection language as well as ensuring the safety of our co-workers. We are eager to see what BDA’s response is on the 21. ” -Kota Owens, Bargaining Team Member
For the first time in history, on Tuesday, Sept 29, grocery store workers from across Washington State and North Idaho met at the same table to plan for our upcoming bargaining session with Kroger and Albertsons.
Our team met with the employer again today to continue bargaining. We have finally started discussing economics, focusing on health care and wages, which we know are our members’ top priorities. We've seen very little movement from the employer and know we need to start escalating.
Correcting the Record: Decades after Organizing Her Own Unit, Leslie Ball Is Still Fighting for Her Coworkers
Leslie Ball, a certified surgical technologist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and a longtime UFCW 3000 Union Steward, has spent decades standing up for herself and her coworkers.
Her fight for better working conditions began in the late 1990s, when she received a 30-cent wage increase, which ended up only being a five-cent raise after her employer reduced her shift differential by a quarter. With years of experience and a deep understanding of the value surgical techs bring to the table, she knew a nickel wasn’t going to cut it. So she and a coworker, Gail Miller, started organizing their colleagues at St. Joe's despite warnings that previous organizing efforts had failed.
Within a year, they helped Radiology, Respiratory Therapy, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and other departments form the hospital’s first Technical Unit, which ratified its first contract in 1999.
On April 27, our new Meat contract was ratified! On a great day of voting, Meat workers overwhelmingly ratified a contract that highlights the value that Union workers bring to Uwajimaya.
Read MoreThrough months of negotiations and direct actions like leafleting, our Union Bargaining Team reached a tentative agreement with Uwajimaya. Our tentative agreement gives us higher than market raises for Journeyperson wage increases, secures our pension & healthcare and makes improvements to benefits such as vacation and sick leave.
Read MoreOur Bargaining Team is excited to have reached a tentative agreement with Uwajimaya on April 10. We entered negotiations with Uwajimaya independently for the first time with the goal of getting a contract that reflects the value we provide as Union workers. After 3 months of negotiating, we have achieved that goal.
Read More
Our Union has approached Uwajimaya bargaining with the goal of shaping an independent grocery contract that reflects the unique nature of meat cutting and wrapping at Uwajimaya. After months of bargaining, we have made considerable progress on securing our health care benefits and retirement.
However, there is still work to do.
"Uwajimaya's latest proposal still puts us below market on wages."
— Aaron, Uwajimaya Bargaining Team Member
Uwajimaya has a vision for growth. At the bargaining table, they said that they want to double their stores in the next few years. Their current wage proposals would not only put us behind on wages compared to the market, they don't want to pay retro on those wages either. How do their most recent proposals make us feel about their growth strategy?
They've also proposed language that would limit our Union's jurisdiction for new stores. Uwajimaya wants to stand out from the rest of their union grocery competitors by lowering wages and limiting our ability to grow power. We're not going to let that happen!
While we've made a lot of progress bargaining so far, core issues are still on the table. So, what's next?
We're gearing up for a campaign—to win an agreement that reflects the value, tenure, and hard work we bring to Uwajimaya. Join our contract action team meeting to discuss our Union's plan of action to win!
Bargaining Team: Ashley Toshi, Uwajimaya Renton; Jesse Marlar, Uwajimaya Seattle; Aaron Powers, Uwajimaya Bellevue
On February 5 & 6, our member led Bargaining Team returned to the table with Uwajimaya and made progress on many non economic issues. Uwajimaya also made their first economic proposal which raised concerns about key priorities for our Bargaining Team.
Read MoreOn Thursday January 29, our Bargaining Team met with management for our second session of contract negotiations. We delivered our response to the Employer’s initial proposals and came to tentative agreements on several language issues that will allow us to narrow down and focus on wages, health care and pension.
Read MoreOn January 14, our Bargaining Team met with Uwajimaya for the first time for contract negotiations. We put forward several proposals which would recognize the premium work done in our meat departments compared to mainstream grocery stores. These proposal included:
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Drop by during the voting time to review the Tentative Agreement, have your questions answered, and then vote. These votes are open to all active members of UFCW 3000 Meat Workers at Uwajimaya.
Contract Vote: Thursday, July 13, 2023
Bellevue Store @ 9AM—10:30AM 699 120th Ave. NE (break room)
Renton Store @ 12PM—1:30PM 501 S Grady Way Renton (break room)
Seattle Store @ 2:30PM—4PM 519 6th Ave. S (break room)
We have reached a final agreement on all the terms discussed in the 2019 Grocery Store Workers bargain, including wages, benefits and securing our pension.
Join your coworkers and vote on your new contract - Thursday, November 4!
Bellevue Store @ 9AM - 10:30AM
699 120th Ave. NE (break room)
Renton Store @ 12PM - 1:30PM
501 S Grady Way Renton (break room)
Seattle Store @ 2:30PM - 4PM
519 6th Ave. S (break room)
All members in good standing are eligible to vote.
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.
Correcting the Record: Decades after Organizing Her Own Unit, Leslie Ball Is Still Fighting for Her Coworkers
Leslie Ball, a certified surgical technologist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and a longtime UFCW 3000 Union Steward, has spent decades standing up for herself and her coworkers.
Her fight for better working conditions began in the late 1990s, when she received a 30-cent wage increase, which ended up only being a five-cent raise after her employer reduced her shift differential by a quarter. With years of experience and a deep understanding of the value surgical techs bring to the table, she knew a nickel wasn’t going to cut it. So she and a coworker, Gail Miller, started organizing their colleagues at St. Joe's despite warnings that previous organizing efforts had failed.
Within a year, they helped Radiology, Respiratory Therapy, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and other departments form the hospital’s first Technical Unit, which ratified its first contract in 1999.
Jenny C., a transporter at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, knows what it looks like when management hopes a problem will just go away.
Jenny has watched the facility's transport elevators malfunction for more than a year, filing report after report after each incident she witnessed. Supervisors did not appear to take these complaints seriously.