Our 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.
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After three days of voting across the Puget Sound area, grocery store workers at Fred Meyer, QFC, Albertsons, Safeway, Haggen and Saars voted to reject the latest contract and to authorize a strike by over 97%.
Our union’s overwhelming support for a strike should serve as a wake-up call to these corporations as we continue to fight for better wages, better staffing, and better stores. As these results show, we’re past tired of waiting.
— Kevin Flynn, Marysville Albertsons, referencing the workers impacted by strike authorization votes taking place in Colorado and Southern California this week.
Our member-led bargaining team returns to the table late next week, June 12 and 13.
• Review your budget and look for ways to save.
• Contact your steward or union rep and learn how to become a strike captain.
• Keep your eyes peeled for strike schedules and W9s to make sure you qualify for strike benefits.
Though some of our contracts don’t expire until later this year— including those of us in Fred Meyer GM and in Teamsters 38— and though many of us are covered under interim agreements, our fellow grocery workers at Kroger and Albertsons will take strike authorization votes following a disappointing final bargaining session with the employers from May 19 to 21.
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 MoreAfter nearly six months of bargaining with Albertson/Safeway and Kroger for a new contract that respects our work, increases our wages, and improves our retirement and healthcare, we are holding a contract vote!
Read MoreJason Millione and Aric Martinez know a thing or two about fresh cut fruit. The two are produce clerks at the Mill Creek Fred Meyer and have 16 years of experience between them. Their store used to lead the district in Fresh Cut sales.
Read MoreCongratulations to all our 2025 union scholarship recipients! Scholarships are reviewed and awarded yearly by our UFCW 3000 Scholarship Committee made up of rank-and-file members from our Executive Board.
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.
Read MoreJoin your coworkers at a monthly Contract Action Team meeting—Let’s stay organized to win a strong contract this year.
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Bargaining Team Member Todd Heuer on a Background of UFCW 3000 Blue with the quote “At First I Thought I Couldn’t Afford to Strike, but Now I Know I Couldn’t Afford Not To” in white and “The Better wages, Better Staffing, Better Stores” logo in the bottom right corner
By Todd Heuer
When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, the word “strike” can send chills down your spine. You can’t even afford to pay rent and put food on the table—how can you even think about not working?
At this point, I’ve worked at Fred Meyer for 17 years. I’m a vice president on the executive board for UFCW 3000, and I’m sitting across the table from Kroger and Albertsons on the bargaining team right now.
I support doing whatever we can do as a union – up to and including a strike – to get the contract we deserve. But I wasn’t always like that.
Back when I first got the job, the word “strike” scared the hell out of me.
Like many of my co-workers, I was working part-time, couldn’t afford the rent, and was weeks away from eviction. At that time, I felt like I couldn’t support a strike in good conscience.
But then I started talking to other workers about it.
My co-workers told me the union has a strike fund that pays benefits out to workers who walk the picket lines, helping us support ourselves and our families.
On my way into the store one morning, I was chatting with a bus driver, and he said their union and others would stand with us and support our strike.
Then I talked to the truck drivers, and they said they wouldn’t deliver food to striking stores. How long could the CEOs keep the stores open when the supply lines dry up?
Then I talked to customers, and many of them said they’d honor our line. Because – look, we all know this – the customers don’t keep coming back because they want to fatten corporate pockets – they keep coming back because of the customer service we provide.
But we can’t provide that customer service if the bosses run skeleton crews, cut pay, gut health care, and fire people for no reason.
Without a strike-ready union, that’s our future.
As a matter of fact, at a bargaining session last month, Kroger and Albertsons proposed a pay and benefit package that would have amounted to a pay cut and worse health care.
But with a strike-ready union, we can fight back.
Join me and our bargaining team and thousands of other grocery store workers, sign the strike pledge, become a strike captain, and support your coworkers in our fight for us all to have a better life.
From April 28 to 30, our member-led Bargaining Team yet again sat across the table from Albertsons and Kroger. We presented data to the companies showing that they have made record profits over the last five years—and yet their CEOs keep slashing staffing to fatten their own wallets and line the pockets of their investors.
Read MoreOur bargaining team is made up of coworkers across different stores and departments. Once our fellow union members at Safeway, Fred Meyer, and QFC reach an agreement, we will begin formal negotiations with Met Market that will build off of their contract. We know we can continue raising the grocery industry standard and believe Met Market should be that industry leader.
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Ten thousand people.
Even after back-to-back days of bargaining, ten thousand people is the conservative estimate for the number of workers that Kroger and Albertsons wants to kick off our health care plan by killing automatic insurance enrollment and increasing the number of hours needed to qualify for it. For more than a decade, our union has fought for and secured high-quality, affordable health care that our coworkers love and have worked hard to protect and improve. We're not about to give that up now.
"We have what you call 'good health insurance.' I've had three surgeries on my right eye. If I didn't have the insurance I have with this job, I wouldn't have been able to afford that care with what we get paid."
— Sam Dancy, bargaining team member and front-end manager at the Westwood Village QFC
If these corporations have nearly $16 billion to blow on Wall Street—plus nearly a billion to throw away on a failed merger—then they have the cash to keep our healthcare trust whole and pay us what we deserve.
We have another three days of bargaining early next week, and another three days in May. After that, we'll vote on the contract in early June.
How the employers behave in these next rounds of bargaining will decide whether we recommend a "yes" or "no" vote.
Be on the lookout for future updates with vote locations and times, and then join us to make your voice heard!
Next bargaining dates: April 28, 29 and 30. May 19, 20 and 21.
Step up: Join a brief workplace leaflet 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! ufcw3000.org/better-staffing
Back row (L-R): Debra Rix, Callow Ave Safeway; Dan Howes, Crown Hill Metro Market; Roger Yanez, Bella Bottega QFC; Sam Dancy, Westwood Village QFC; Cliff Powers, Anacortes Safeway; Bryan Gilderoy, Kent Fred Meyer; Kyle Doherty, Stanwood Haggen; Kevin Flynn, Marysville Albertsons; J'Nee Delancey, Ballard Town and Country; Teamsters Local 38 E-Board Member Caprii Nakihei; Kim Hayes, Everett Safeway; Teamsters Local 38 E-Board Member Caprii Nakihei; Teamsters Local 38 Joel Palabrica; Todd Heuer, Ballard Fred Meyer. Front row (L-R): Yasmin Ashur, Port Orchard Albertsons; Daisy Hannelore, Benson Plaza Fred Meyer; Joseph Baltz, Anacortes Fred Meyer; Jeff Smith, Fred Meyer; Princetta Woodhouse, Redondo Fred Meyer; Kyong Barry, S Auburn Albertsons; Amy Dayley Angell, Ballard QFC.
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
Contract Vote Proposal Meeting
Read MoreContract Vote Proposal Meeting
Read MoreWe want to give a quick update as not everyone has been attending the weekly/semi-weekly Zoom meetings on Thursdays. In the future, we will invite everyone via gmail calendar when the next meeting is scheduled.
Read MoreOn Thursday April 3, our union members grabbed bullhorns, hoisted up informational picket signs, and marched outside of Fred Meyers and QFCs across Puget Sound to fight for better wages, better staffing, and better stores.
Read MoreApril 2, 2025 marks UFCW 3000’s quasquicentennial, a word so fancy that nobody quite knows how to say it. Regardless of how you pronounce it, the absurdly Latinate term means we’ve been around for 125 years. During that time, we’ve grown from a crew of nine butchers in downtown Seattle to the largest private-sector union in the Pacific Northwest, representing more than 56,000 workers in grocery, retail, food processing, health care, laundry and textiles, cannabis, and others industries.
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.
