UFCW 3000 Member Story: Matthew Leon
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Matthew was hired on as a meat wrapper at Safeway in March of 2023. After a few paychecks he noticed he was not being paid as promised, so he talked to his union representative.
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Most Recent News & Updates
“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.
Please lookout for a vote notice once we can confirm when the ratification vote will take place. Members will all have a chance to review the vote documents and ask questions, we will also hold a meeting to discuss this historic TA very soon. Also, please thank your Bargaining Team! They worked very hard.
Jefferson County Bargaining Kick-Off Meeting!
We’re getting ready to head to the bargaining table, and we want to hear from you!
Join our Union Bargaining Team for a Bargaining Kick-Off Meeting to talk about the upcoming negotiations, review bargaining priorities, discuss the bargaining process, and answer questions.
This is your opportunity to get involved, share what matters most to you, and help shape our priorities as we prepare for bargaining.
Bargaining Kick-Off Meeting:
Thursday, October 1 from 6pm to 7pm online via Zoom >>
Meeting ID: 821 3753 7914 Passcode: 251390
Get Involved!
Strong contracts are built when members stay informed and involved. Join us as we kick off bargaining and make sure Jefferson County members’ voices are heard at the table.
We look forward to seeing you and hearing from you!
Our Union Bargaining Team has reached a Tentative Agreement with Olympic Medical Center and is recommending a YES vote!
After ten sessions across six months of negotiations, our union Bargaining Team reached the difficult but necessary decision to call for a strike authorization vote.
We’ve come to management with contract language addressing our positions being overstaffed by agency & traveler employees. Management have come to us rejecting this proposal.
Our Bargaining Team is thrilled to announce that on September 22, 2026, an overwhelming majority of our members voted YES and approved the contract! We now have a ratified contract!
Our Union Bargaining Team has been working for several months on an agreement to transition Audiology Assistants and Pathologist Assistants into the existing UFCW 3000 Kaiser Permanente Pro Tech Optical Contract and we have reached a tentative agreement. The Bargaining Team fully recommends this agreement.
SEATTLE – Today the Seattle City Council passed Mayor Katie Wilson’s Fair Pricing and Transparency ordinance with no corporate amendments that open the door to algorithmic pricing or weaken enforcement, making Seattle home to the strongest ban on surveillance pricing in the country.
The employer joined us for two bargaining sessions on September 17 and 18. They have hired a new legal counsel who seemingly is trying to set a different, more collaborative tone with our union. We reached Tentative Agreements on several topics, including an Artificial Intelligence Memorandum of Understanding and an Inclusion Memorandum of Understanding to help protect some of our members who are part of marginalized communities.
Join your Bargaining Team and coworkers for an update on the current bargaining campaigns on Tuesday, Sept 22, 5:30-6:30pm. We will give updates on the St. Michael and St. Joseph bargaining and how we can build power together. Please show your support for your bargaining teams by wearing your union swag with pride every day, but especially today, September 18, for our next bargaining session.
Any questions can be addressed to Charlie King at 360-409-0606 or a Bargaining Team Member.
On September 15, a strong group of UFCW 3000 members marched into EvergreenHealth’s Board meeting to make sure their voices were heard.
On Wednesday, September 16, UFCW 3000 members in the St. Michael Medical Center Pro-Tech and Clinical Support unit voted UNANIMOUSLY to reject CommonSpirit’s offer, and overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike.
We are excited to announce that the 2026 nominations for the PCC Labor Management Advisory Committee (LMAC) will open on September 21, 2026. This is a great opportunity to nominate yourself or a coworker to help shape important decisions that impact PCC workers and our stores.
UFCW 3000 Member Story: Marlene Padilla
/ UFCW 3000
Marlene Padilla in the Meat Department at PCC Bothell
Marlene Padilla has worked in the grocery industry since 1999, starting at the Foodland stores in Hawaii. “Being a single parent and working close to home with great hours helped me with my decision to work in the grocery industry,” she says. At Foodland, she was promoted to meat wrapper, and when she moved to Seattle she started working for Safeway. After nine years, when one of Marlene’s meat managers left to work at PCC and suggested she come work there, too, she decided to go for it. She respected him because, as she puts it, he “gave me a lot of respect as a female, not just a fixture.”
When Marlene started at PCC in 2014, she knew that it was a risk starting with a new employer and a new group of coworkers: “I had to work harder to prove I had it in me, not because I knew someone. I’m still working in a man's world.” She showed her coworkers how dependable and trustworthy she was and has been working there ever since. She wants coworkers to know: “I always got your back.”
Away from work, Marlene enjoys reading, being a single mother, a grandparent, a Seattle Seahawks fan, and hanging out with her cat Shadow. “My three children and two grandchildren keep me grounded,” she says, “as well as all the meat department guys I work with.”
Negotiations with PCC for a new contract this year have required more workplace actions from PCC workers than ever before. As Marlene and her coworkers have discussed the bargain and taken action, she reminds coworkers about all the important parts of a union contract—the bargain can’t be about “the payscale and nothing else,” she says. Her top priority? ”Maintaining good health benefits.”
Marlene has taken an interest in attending PCC negotiations as an observer. “It’s important for us as members to see how the language in our contract is fought for!” Marlene is a strong woman and union member; her coworkers are lucky to have her standing with them in this bargain. Mahalo, Marlene!
UFCW 3000 Member Stories: Misti Senn
/ UFCW 3000
Misti Senn a shop steward in the meat department at the Lynnwood Fred Meyer. Misti has worked as a meat wrapper since 1998 and before that in the service deli. She has seen a lot of changes in that time, including the merger with local grocery QFC, and then Fred Meyer being acquired by the mega-national chain Kroger.
Those changes have shown Misti that having a voice on the job with her union is the only way…
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