After historic votes in Western and Eastern WA grocery contracts. We have been able to define and limit the scope of work permitted by Third-Party Franchise in the produce department.
Read MoreThese votes are open to all members of UFCW 3000 grocery stores in Skagit, Island, and Whatcom Counties at the big chains (Safeway, Haggen, Albertsons d/b/a Safeway in Oak Harbor, and Fred Meyer) and independent stores (The Market and Saar’s).
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Dear Grocery Store Workers,
This week Kroger announced plans to close four Fred Meyer stores in the Puget Sound region, including stores in Everett, Kent, Lake City, and Redmond.
Our members built a fighting union exactly for moments like this one. Our size and strength give us the power to push back against giant corporations like Kroger and Albertsons when they try to disrupt our lives and communities with store closures.
To that end, in the coming days our union bargaining team will sit across the table with Kroger with a list of demands to ensure fairness during this process.
In the meantime, below you'll find frequently asked questions about store closures, along with actions we plan to take to fight back against this corporate greed.
Give them a read, get involved, and get in touch with your union rep if you have any other questions >>
Is the company obligated to place us at another store?
All of our grocery contracts ensure that the company must offer workers placement in other nearby stores based on seniority following a closure.
Where can I find the seniority language in our contract?
Fred Meyer Grocery: Article 3
Fred Meyer General Merch: Article 5
Fred Meyer Meat: Article 11
If I move to another store, do I keep my same position?
The move to All Purpose Clerk (APC) for grocery and general merchandise workers gives members the opportunity to flex toward departments other than their home one to pick up hours.
Do these closures impact my retirement benefits?
Generally, our pension plan requires you to work for five years before you can draw on the pension during retirement. If you have not worked for five years, then you will not receive pension benefits when you retire. For specific questions, please contact Sound Retirement Trust at (206) 282-4500.
Read up: To learn more background information on these closures, read our union's press releases.
Release 1 >> Release 2 >>
Speak up: UFCW 3000 will host a 30-minute telephone town hall with all grocery store members at 4:30 PM on Thursday, August 21. We'll be answering any questions you have about these closures. Call in using this number: 844-227-7556. If you join a few minutes late, then just input the Meeting ID: 8789.
Stand up: Our union is currently in the process of planning ways to work with our state and local elected officials to prioritize policies that protect workers, eliminate food deserts, and ensure affordable food for all. Get involved in the process by emailing politics@ufcw3000.org and expressing your interest.
Thursday, August 21
4:30 PM
Call-in Number: 844-227-7556
Meeting ID: 8789
Just a few weeks ago, we voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. The success of that vote armed our member-led bargaining team with the power to win an agreement that fixed the low-ball, takeaway offer from Kroger and Albertsons that prompted the strike vote in the first place.
Read MoreOur union member bargaining team reached a Tentative Agreement and recommends a YES vote to accept the proposal from the employers.
“This is the ninth time I’ve sat at this table—this contract allows us to majorly build our power in the region” —Jeff Smith, Fred Meyer GM
Read MoreThis tentative agreement pioneers new staffing language, establishes first-ever staffing programs at our stores, secures strong wage increases, fully funds our healthcare plan with no benefit cuts, provides a pension we can count on, adds a major investment into our apprenticeship and training fund, and significantly boosts our bargaining power in the region and in the western U.S.
Read MoreAs the time to reach a deal came down to the wire, the companies acted with no urgency. They made our team wait for hours between proposals, and when they did pass something back, they only moved an inch here and there. Their posture at the table spoke volumes: They don’t value our work, and they don’t think we’re ready to fight for what we deserve. We’re happy to prove them wrong.
Our bargaining team unanimously recommends a NO vote on the contract and a YES vote to authorize a strike so corporate knows they can’t push us around.
Read MoreDepending on how our upcoming negotiations go, our Bargaining Team may recommend a NO vote, a strike authorization vote, or a contract ratification vote.
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From the first day of negotiations, our member-led bargaining team has worked to reach a fair contract that honors and respects our hard work. Today Kroger and Albertsons proposed the biggest cuts to our health plan since 2013, when we were two hours away from calling a strike. This new proposal would potentially take away coverage from thousands of members and shift more healthcare costs to us. The companies attempting to increase our cost burden are the same ones who have seen profits increase by about 100% over the past five years, four to six times greater than the profits they saw before the COVID pandemic. We will never accept proposals that strip away health coverage from thousands of members.
“We have no interest in accepting proposals that kick people off our health care plan,”
—Ballard QFC Amy Dayley Angell
But the employers’ disrespect did not end with their healthcare proposal. They advanced a wage proposal of $1, $0.50, $0.50. That’s half or less than half depending on your job classification of what we settled for three years ago! We are worth more than fifty cents, which is why our union proposed a compensation package that would reward loyalty, keep up with the cost of living, and bring us in line with the pay of competitors like Costco.
“They are proposing to give us less in wage increases than Colorado, California, Spokane, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon—they must be joking, right?”
— Princetta Woodhouse, Redondo Fred Meyer
If you factor in inflation and the increased healthcare premiums the employers are demanding, their wage proposal would likely amount to a pay cut for all of us. Pay cuts for us while the companies each pay their CEOs more than $15 million a year? No way!
We know these greedy corporate CEOs can afford to keep our high-quality health plan intact and pay us what we are worth because the companies collectively spent nearly $16 billion in stock buybacks and dividends ($6.6 billion for Albertsons, and $9.2 billion for Kroger) between 2018 and 2022. That’s money they should have used to increase staff, wages, benefits, remodel stores, purchase new equipment, and lower prices for customers.
Next bargaining dates:
April 21, 22, 28, 29 and 30.
Step up:
Join a brief workplace leaflet next week and sign a strike pledge card if you haven’t already. Contact your union steward or union rep for more information.
Speak up:
File a staffing report at nogrocerylines.org >>
Dive deeper:
Read more information about our negotiations on our website! >>
Our Union Bargaining Team: Back row (L-R): Todd Heuer, Ballard Fred Meyer; Kim Hayes, Everett Safeway; Teamsters Local 38 E-Board Member Caprii Nakihei; Jeff Smith, Fred Meyer; Bryan Gilderoy, Kent Fred Meyer; Sam Dancy, Westwood Village QFC; Debra Rix, Callow Ave Safeway; Cliff Powers, Anacortes Safeway; Dan Howes, Crown Hill Metro Market; Roger Yanez, Bella Bottega QFC. Middle row (L-R): Kyle Doherty, Stanwood Haggen; Kevin Flynn, Marysville Albertsons; Kyong Barry, S Auburn Albertsons; Princetta Woodhouse, Redondo Fred Meyer; Joseph Baltz, Anacortes Fred Meyer; Daisy Hannelore, Benson Plaza Fred Meyer; Yasmin Ashur, Port Orchard Albertsons. Front row (L-R): Amy Dayley Angell, Ballard QFC; J’Nee Delancey, Ballard Town and Country. Not pictured: UFCW 3000 President Faye Guenther; UFCW 3000 Secretary-Treasurer Joe Mizrahi; Teamsters Local 38 Union Rep Luke Vauley; Teamsters Local 38 Secretary-Treasurer Samantha Kantak; Teamsters Local 38 President Pete Lamb
In this week’s meetings with Kroger and Albertsons/Safeway, our member-led Bargaining Team heard the first staffing proposal from Kroger. Unfortunately, their proposal fell well short of what we need to ensure safe stores for workers and customers.
Read MoreWorking the self-checkout area ranks as one of the toughest jobs in our grocery stores, mostly because running these departments with skeleton crews forces cashiers to serve multiple customers and to deal with multiple problems at the same time. The working conditions are more than just frustrating—they can be dangerous, too.
Read MoreOnly days after Kroger’s CEO resigned for unknown ethical reasons, our bargaining team faced Kroger bargainers who seem hell-bent on stripping away workers’ rights.
Read MoreThe key to our success is staying unified and continuing to fight for better wages, better staffing, and better stores.
Read MoreOn February 3 & 4, our Bargaining Team met with the Employers and focused on sharing stories about the impacts of low staffing on our workplaces.
Read MoreOur Bargaining Team met January 21 and 22 to share our core concerns with the Employers. We focused on major issues like addressing under-staffing, U-SCAN usage, and store safety. We will begin to work on our wage, pension, and healthcare proposals with the goal of putting all our issues on the table in March.
Read MoreThe Colorado 10-day ULP strike by UFCW local 7 in 2022 helped pave the way for our contract negotiations that same year and the most significant wage increases we’ve ever seen. Together, united, UFCW 3000, UFCW local 7, and Teamsters local 38 will coordinate proposals and actions to show Kroger and Albertsons that again in 2025, when we stand together, we win.
Read MoreVivian Pitre has worked at the North City Safeway off 175th St. in Seattle for 6 years. She spent four years doing fresh cut work in the produce department, but didn't like how isolated the job was, so two years ago, she transferred to the deli department. She loves the interaction with customers.
Read MoreAs we plan for the upcoming contract cycle with the Employers, our Union Bargaining Team needs input from all members to understand the problems grocery store workers are facing at work and how together we can fight for a better contract and better workplaces.
Read MoreAfter months of bargaining, we secured our first contract with many amazing improvements including:
Read More
UFCW 324 Members' Rally Was Covered on ABC 7 in LA September 13, 2024
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.
