Thomas Nelson has been working at Safeway in Spokane in April of this year. He comes from a family with a strong union back ground, and so he decided to become a shop steward to help his coworkers and make sure they know about their rights on the job!
Read MoreAfter several bargaining sessions, our bargaining team is proud to announce that we have a tentative agreement.
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.
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Monday, December 23, 2024 @ 7:30pm
UFCW 3000 2805 N. Market St. Spokane WA 99207
Significant pay increases
Retirement security
Our Bargaining Team is excited to announce we have reached a tentative agreement with Samaritan Health Hospital that recognizes our hard work and dedication. The employer heard our team’s requests regarding wages and equity and made significant changes that the bargaining team believes will improve retention and recruitment while boosting satisfaction. We still have work to do and will continue the work through the next three years so that we can build on what we have worked so hard for. We look forward to sharing all the details at our vote.
Drop-In Vote Meeting!
Monday January 6, 2025
Room 404
6:00 AM — 10:00 AM
2:00 PM — 5:00 PM
Please join the bargaining team in voting YES! Complete documents will be available for review at the vote. You must be a member in good standing to vote. Please reach out to your Union Representative at (509) 340-7369 or any member of the bargaining team with questions.
“We stood in unity and achieved a fair and equitable contract for Samaritan RNs!”
Our Union Bargaining Team met with Seattle Children’s Hospital leadership and their chief negotiator this past Monday, December 16. The initial session was productive and moved rapidly.
Read MoreWe met with REI’s attorneys again this week to continue bargaining for a fair first contract for our coworkers. We discussed technology and data, union representation, communication, job vacancies and promotions, and health and safety.
Read MoreWe are happy to announce that our RN contract was ratified on Monday December 16, 2024.
Read MoreOn Monday, December 16, our Mary Bridge Registered Nurses (RNs) again joined forces with the Diabetes Educator nurses to continue negotiations with MultiCare over our 2024 Collective Bargaining Agree
Read MoreColeen Dahlman holds a deep passion for helping her community. At work, her passion drives her as a CT Tech—a trained imaging specialist doctors depend on to diagnose patients—in the Radiology Department for Kaiser Permanente Olympia Medical Center. Outside of work Coleen loves to quilt and donates her quilts to people in her community and coworkers.
Read MoreSince the beginning of November, Management has only been available for a few short bargaining sessions. This has been challenging. We need Management to come to the table and spend a full day with us bargaining. We are willing to work as long and hard as it takes to get a contract we can recommend to you!
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Your coworker-led bargaining team met with Rosauers for the second bargaining session on December 9th and 10th. With our few Tentative Agreements, we would be able to have the option to cash out 5 vacation days if we are unable to use them due to the needs of the business. We would also be able to have the option to gift our vacation days to our coworkers who may need extra time off due to life-altering events.
We continued to propose livable wage increases with the high inflation we have all felt the effects of, but the company came back with wage proposals that were not sufficient to our team. Our coworker-led Bargaining Team is asking all of us to come together in solidarity and show Rosauers that these economic proposals are unacceptable. Please join us by wearing a button until we get the contract ratified and to show the company, we are going to continue this fight until we win!
Our Auburn Medical Center Registered Nurses & Case Manager Registered Nurses bargaining team met with MultiCare on Wednesday the 11th for our seventh bargaining session this cycle- and after receiving management's responses in the morning, we knew we would likely have little to positively report about how bargaining is progressing...
With regard to the Case Managers entering the RN contract, management let us know that they would not have a response ready for us—despite having our most recent proposal in their court since November 21.
And in terms of the RN contract, MultiCare provided us with a wage proposal of 7.00% in the first year, which would result in our wages at AMC being equal to those at MultiCare Tacoma General and Good Samaritan in Pierce County... wages that these RNs negotiated around two years ago! Not to mention management further contextualized the proposal by stating that although they're not officially at their last and final wage offer- they are "getting close."
While our team hoped to be patient with MultiCare and lift AMC RN's wages to be competitive in the King County market—we're not sure we have the patience to wait for MultiCare's proposals to catch up to 2024.
"We need solidarity now, and in numbers..."
—Nick White, MedSurg ICU RN
Your Bargaining Team:
Nick White, RN; Sarah Murry, RN; Cory Larsen, RN
Amber Hamilton, Case Manager RN; Nicole Joseph, Case Manager RN
After meeting with the Employer on December 10 and 11 all day, our Union Bargaining Team has still not yet been able to reach a fully recommended settlement offer we can put to a contract vote.
We will be holding a Contract Action Team meeting via Zoom on Tuesday, December 17 at 5:00 PM to discuss with any and all of our interested bargaining unit coworkers where we are in this process and next steps.
"It has been slow going. While we have tentative agreement on most non-economic items, we are still working towards an agreement on wages and other economic sections of the contract. Management's current wage proposal is disappointing."
—Our Bargaining Team: Linnea Ellis, Patient Access Representative; Nicole Peschon, Coding Specialist
On Tuesday, December 10, following a series of well-attended vote meetings, our MultiCare AMC Professionals bargaining team are overjoyed to announce that our first ever union contract has been ratified!
This journey started before negotiations, and before winning our union election in the summer of 2023; through perseverance, dedication, and solidarity, we have transformed MultiCare Auburn Medical Center and are now proudly UNION REPRESENTED PROFESSIONALS!
So what are the next steps?
While we are awaiting the roll-out of our experience-audit forms from MultiCare, the Employer and our Union will review and format the new contract. Once finalized, it will be made available online & distributed throughout the hospital.
In the meantime, you can view vote materials on UFCW 3000's website:
View Contract Materials >>
Reach out to our Union Representative Ian Jacobson if you have questions about the contract, wages, or need union representation!
UFCW Locals 7, 324, 770, 1564 and 3000
For Immediate Release: December 13, 2024 - 9 AM ET/6 AM PT
Contact: Tom Geiger, UFCW 3000, 206-604-3421
Seattle, WA - A day after failing in its bid to merge with Albertsons and dominate the traditional supermarket industry, Kroger abruptly announced a massive giveaway to shareholders—a $7.5 billion stock buyback, $5 billion of which is slated to be paid out on an accelerated timetable. The massive shareholder payout towers above the commitments the company had promised to reduce prices for consumers and to invest in wages during the recent merger fight. Flip-flopping in less than a day’s time from a strategy of aggressive growth through Albertson’s acquisition on Tuesday to one of dramatic downsizing through shedding $7.5 billion on Wednesday should be seen for what it seems to be - an attempt to buy shareholders’ mercy through a short-term boost to the stock price in order to save CEO Rodney McMullen’s job.
“At a time when our stores need significant investments in staffing, repairs and remodels and our customers need relief from high prices, it is outrageous that Rodney McMullen would try to distract attention from his multiple failures as CEO by announcing a massive one-time giveaway to shareholders,” said Kim Cordova, President of UFCW Local 7 in Colorado and Wyoming.
During the recent three trials to block the merger, Kroger officials repeatedly expressed concern that rising competition from Amazon, Walmart and other nontraditional retailers represented an “existential” threat to Kroger’s market share. Within hours of that merger’s failure, it appears that Mr. McMullen’s first substantive action—apart from deciding to sue Albertsons—is to fleece $7.5 billion from the company’s treasury instead of making investments that would build market share. This $7.5 billion is on top the nearly $1 billion the Company already wasted on the failed merger. Apparently, in McMullen’s view, the threats to Kroger’s survival are not so great that the company needs these resources.
What could a competent CEO do with $7.5 billion? At the most basic level, these funds could be used to: 1) invest in lower prices for consumers, making Kroger more price competitive; 2) invest in higher wages and more staffing to reduce turnover; 3) remedy chronically empty shelves; and, 4) provide better customer service. The $7.5 billion in share buybacks announced Wednesday are approximately 10 times the value of the promised investments in price reductions the company had said it would make if the merger were approved. The Company made a similar billion-dollar commitment to invest in wages. Workers know all too well just how badly needed these additional wages and hours are for the stores’ operations, and how they would allow the company to grow its market share.
What else could a competent executive do to grow market share? They could do what Amazon, Walmart, Costco and Trader Joe’s have done: build new stores. Those other retailers have consistently grown their grocery store count each year over the past decade, but there are fewer Kroger stores today than there were in January of 2016. How many new Kroger stores could $7.5 billion buy? Based on an average pre-tax cost of $35 million per store, Kroger could build 280 new combination stores (such as Ralphs, King Soopers or QFC) each with an average square footage of 71,000 sq ft, for a total of approximately 20 million new square feet—the equivalent of over 1,300 Trader Joe’s stores, about 2.2 times as many Trader Joe’s as currently exist.
What could $7.5 billion buy?
New stores: 280
Store remodels: 3,268*
Discounts per loyal household: $158.13
New FTEs: 125,691
New FTEs per store: 46
New FTE's per store for 3 yrs: 15.4
* This is actually larger than the total number of stores currently operated by Kroger.
“These stores are part of our community—millions of consumers shop there for their families' food, and hundreds of thousands of union members work there. These billions could be used to improve our food supply, reduce prices, reduce food deserts and more,” said Kathy Finn, President of UFCW 770 in Southern California. “That money is not a personal piggy bank that Rodney McMullen can raid in order to save his job.”
“As the president of a local union that represents 11,700 Kroger workers, I don’t take lightly the decision to call for the replacement of the company’s CEO, but Rodney McMullen has mismanaged this company so badly there is no other way forward,” said Faye Guenther, President of UFCW 3000 in Washington State. “It was under his leadership that the company decided to attack its union members by cutting staffing by double-digit percentages, it was under his leadership that the decision was made to invest in the automated Ocado warehouse boondoggle, and it was under his leadership that both companies wasted the last two years and nearly $1 billion pursuing a doomed merger. It’s past time for him to go.”
On December 10 and 11, Our RN Union Bargaining Team met with Hospital Management to continue negotiations. Both sides exchanged comprehensive proposals addressing economic and workplace conditions. Throughout the discussions, we emphasized the urgent need to offer wages and benefits that keep us competitive with nearby facilities like St. Michael Medical Center and Olympic Medical Center.
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 MoreFollowing yesterday’s court rulings blocking the proposed Kroger and Albertsons mega-merger, we welcome Albertsons’ decision to terminate the merger transaction, meaning there will be no further court appeals seeking to complete the merger. We encourage the leaders of both Kroger and Albertsons to invest resources in their stores by investing in adequate staffing so customers are better served and workers can safely and effectively operate the stores and stock the shelves. These investments will result in higher sales and improved satisfaction by shoppers and employees alike.
Read MoreWe 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.
