Metropolitan Market - Bargaining Update

Bargaining Team: Dan Howes, Produce - Crown Hill; Alej Gallardo, Meat Cutter - Sammamish; Devin Kjolso, Meat Cutter - Uptown; Maggie Baze, Mercer Island; Tori Nakamatsu-Figaroa, Bakery - Uptown; Bill Graves, Maintenance Clerk - Crown Hill; Felicity, Sand Point; Kelly Shaffer, Bakery - Uptown (not pictured)

Our bargaining team met with Metropolitan Market again after nearly two months since our last bargaining session. Although there was significant time between bargaining sessions, we continued to organize—wearing buttons and organizing leaflets at our stores until we reach a deal.

At the bargaining table on October 2, we made significant progress on aligning our interests with Metropolitan Market with key issues—apprentice wage scale progression, training & development investments, department head premiums, and other contract improvements. While many of the concepts our employer discussed were benefit improvements, some of our key issues still need to be addressed—guaranteed hours and wages.

A significant part of our discussion was Metropolitan Market's desire to merge the seafood clerk and meat wrapper classifications into one. While this would significantly raise wages for seafood clerks and provide more flexibility in the department, our bargaining team raised concerns regarding our wrapper's right to daily seniority, labor hours and staffing, and workload. We will continue this discussion at our next bargaining session which will be scheduled soon.

If you're interested in hearing more about negotiations or want to share your thoughts on existing proposal discussion, please reach out to your union representative or bargaining team member.

PCC October Contract Action Team Meetings

Join your coworkers to prepare for upcoming negotiations and how to win a fair contract! If you have any questions, please call your Union Representative.

Monday, October 6: 10am—11am Issaquah Public Library, Meeting Room: 10 W Sunset Way, Issaquah, WA 98027

Tuesday, October 7: 10am—11am Ballard Library - 5614 22nd Ave NW Seattle, WA 98107 - Meeting Room

Tuesday, October 7: 4pm—5pm Fremont Library - 731 N 35th St. Seattle, WA 98103 - Meeting Room

Tuesday, October 7: 9am—10am Starbucks, 22833 Bothell Everett Hwy, Bothell , WA 98021

Tuesday, October 7: 5pm—6pm Mountlake Terrace Library, 23300 58th Ave W, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043

Tuesday, October 7: 4pm—5pm Burien second floor meeting room, 400 SW. 152nd St. Suite 100 Burien, WA 98166

Tuesday, October 7: 9am—10am Starbucks, 22833 Bothell Everett Hwy, Bothell , WA 98021

Tuesday, October 7: 5pm—6pm Mountlake Terrace Library 23300 58th Ave W, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043

Tuesday, October 7: 6pm—7pm Kirkland Library 308 Kirkland Ave, Kirkland, Wa 98033

Wednesday, October 8: 10am—11am Northeast Library: 6801 35th Ave NE, Seattle WA, 98115

Wednesday, October 8: 6:30pm—7:30pm Green Lake Library: 7364 East Green Lake Dr N, Seattle WA, 98115

Wednesday, October 8: 3:30pm—5:00pm West Seattle. 2306 42nd Ave. SW., Seattle, WA 98116

Wednesday, October 8: 5pm—6pm Bellevue Public Library, Meeting Room #3: 1111 110th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98004

Wednesday, October 8: 9am—10am Starbucks, 11523 Avondale Rd NE, Redmond, WA. 98052

Thursday, October 9: 9:15am—10:15am Mountlake Terrace Library, 23300 58th Ave W, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043

Thursday, October 9: 9:15am—10:15am Mountlake Terrace Library 23300 58th Ave W, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043

Thursday, October 9: 7:00pm—8:00pm On-Line Zoom Meeting >>

Ratified!

Our Union Bargaining Team: 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; 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.

On Friday, Sept 19, QFC grocery store workers ratified a Letter of Understanding (LOU) that allows displaced UFCW 3000 members at Fred Meyer stores to transfer into open QFC positions while retaining their hard-earned union seniority and benefits.

The ratification of this LOU ensures a fair transfer process for the 700+ workers whose jobs were put at risk by Kroger’s decision to close stores in our region. 

Join the Fresh Food for All Movement

Food deserts aren't a natural phenomenon. Giant grocery store corporations create them when they starve our neighborhood stores to feed Wall Street shareholders. 

By closing six full-service stores in Puget Sound right before the holidays, Kroger, the Cincinnati-based corporation that owns Fred Meyer and QFC, wants to leave our working-class communities high and dry.

We won't stand for it.

In response to these closures and to rising corporate greed, we've launched our Fresh Food for All campaign, a new vision for the grocery industry that puts people first. We aim to make sure every family has access to fresh, affordable groceries in safe, well-staffed stores.

Right now, we're sitting at the table with grocery store workers, community organizations, and elected officials to discuss policies that will realize this vision. 

A Food Justice Vision for Washington

• Public-Option Grocery Stores: To protect our neighborhoods, Washington should support public-private partnership grocery stores to keep food affordable and accessible for all.

• Grocery-Oriented Development Zones (GODZ): Pair new workforce housing with full-service grocery stores, reserving some units for workers who rely on SNAP/WIC.

• Ban Surge and Surveillance Pricing: No more secret algorithms that jack up food prices in real time. Families deserve stable grocery bills, not digital discrimination.

• Ban Digital-Only Coupons: Discounts shouldn’t be locked behind smartphones, inaccessible to the elderly and low-income shoppers.

• Mass Layoff Protections: Washington should set the standard for worker justice. We must require 90 days’ notice for mass layoffs and severance pay for displaced workers.

Act Now

• SIGN UP: Sign our petition to join the movement to protect workers, eliminate food deserts, and ensure fresh, affordable food for all. 

• SPEAK UP: RSVP to our Fresh Food for All Community Town Hall on Saturday, September 20 from 2-4 pm at the Seattle Labor Temple to help identify concrete ways to fight back against food deserts and to protect workers and shoppers. 

Ray's Meats Production Contract Ratified

Elected Leaders Stand with Grocery Workers! Open letter to Ron Sargent, Kroger Interim Chief Executive Officer

September 1, 2025 
Ron Sargent 
Interim Chief Executive Officer 
Chairman of the Board 
The Kroger Company 
1014 Vine Street 
Cincinnati, OH 45202-1100  

Dear Mr. Sargent, 

On Labor Day, a day set aside to honor the contributions of working people, we are writing to express our deep concern and opposition to your company’s announced closure of four Fred Meyer stores in the Puget Sound region — in Lake City (Seattle), Everett, Kent, and Redmond. These closures will result in the loss of nearly 700 union jobs and will leave working-class communities with fewer options for affordable groceries, worsening food insecurity. 

You have attempted to justify these closures by pointing to retail theft. The facts tell a different story. Retail theft has actually declined at the impacted stores.  

The real reasons for these closures derive from your corporate choices: years of underinvestment in stores, chronic understaffing, and funneling billions of dollars to Wall Street instead of reinvesting in workers and communities.  

Between 2018 and 2022 alone, you spent $9.2 billion on stock buybacks and dividends, and just last year you announced another $7.5 billion buyback. At the same time, you cut labor hours by more than 14% per store since 2019, creating a 21% staffing shortfall across your operations. 

We cannot accept the narrative that these closures are inevitable. They are the result of your deliberate corporate strategy that puts short-term payouts to investors over the long-term stability of workers, shoppers, and our neighborhoods. Abandoning working-class communities in this way is unacceptable. 

We stand with the nearly 700 workers whose jobs are on the line and the thousands of families who will lose access to essential groceries. As elected leaders, we will not sit idly by while you make decisions that destabilize our communities. 

We call on you to: 

• Halt the announced store closures and immediately engage with workers, community leaders, and local governments about alternatives. 

• Reinvest in staffing, safety, and store upkeep instead of funneling billions into Wall Street. 

• Release store-level data so the public can understand the true drivers behind these decisions. 

Our communities deserve better than to be abandoned by one of the nation’s largest and most profitable grocery corporations. On this Labor Day, we urge you to reverse course and put people before profits. 

Sincerely, 

King County Council 

Council President Girmay Zahilay  
Councilmember Claudia Balducci  
Councilmember Rod Dembowski 
Councilmember Jorge Barón  
Councilmember Sarah Perry 
Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda  

Snohomish County Council  

Councilmember Megan Dunn  
Councilmember Sam Low 

Lake City  

State Senator Javier Valdez (LD 46)
Rep. Gerry Pollett (LD 46) 
Rep. Darya Farivar (LD 46)  
Seattle City Councilmember Debora Juarez 
Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck
Seattle School Board Member Joe Mizrahi 

Kent 

Kent Councilmember Satwinder Kaur 
Rep. Chris Stearns (LD 47) 
Rep. Debra Entenman (LD 47) 
Public Hospital District #1 Commissioner Dustin Lambro 

Redmond  

Redmond City Council President Vanessa Kritzker 
Redmond City Council VP Jessica Forsythe 
Redmond City Councilmember & State Rep. Osman Salahuddin (LD 48) 

Everett 

Everett Councilmember Paula Rhyne   
Everett Councilmember Don Schwab
Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin 
Everett Councilmember & State Rep. Mary Fosse (LD 38)  
Sen. June Robinson (LD 38) 
Rep. Julio Cortes (LD 48) 

UFCW 3000 Launches Fresh Food for All Campaign, Endorses Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor

UFCW 3000, Washington State’s largest labor union, proudly endorses Katie Wilson for Mayor of Seattle.

“Our members stock the shelves, staff the hospitals, and serve every neighborhood in this city,” UFCW Executive Board Member and Ballard QFC Cashier Amy Dayley Angell, “Katie Wilson has marched with us on the picket line and fought off corporate bullies to raise wages for all working people, so we know she’s ready to take on the big battles to make Seattle affordable for everyone.”

Wilson shares our goal of building an affordable city where people can live near their workplaces without breaking the bank and get where they need to go quickly and reliably.

We also stand with Wilson in the effort to create a fairer tax code, one that balances more of the load on wealthy corporations rather than working-class people.

And in the wake of four scheduled Fred Meyer closures in our region, we’re glad to know that the next mayor of Seattle stands with us as we launch our Fresh Food for All campaign, which will make food deserts bloom with fresh, affordable produce and prevent grocery giants from stomping all over our communities.

A Food Justice Vision for Seattle

• Mass Layoff Protections – Seattle should set the standard for worker justice. We must require 90 days’ notice for mass layoffs and severance pay for displaced workers.

• Grocery-Oriented Development Zones (GODZ) – Pair new workforce housing with full-service grocery stores, reserving some units for workers who rely on SNAP/WIC.

• Public-Option Grocery Stores – Food deserts aren’t a natural phenomenon. They occur when giant grocery corporations abandon working-class communities in search of higher profits. To protect our neighborhoods, Seattle should support public-private partnership grocery stores to keep food affordable and accessible for all.

• Ban Surge and Surveillance Pricing – No more secret algorithms that jack up food prices in real time. Families deserve stable grocery bills, not digital discrimination.

• Ban Digital-Only Coupons – Discounts shouldn’t be locked behind smartphones, inaccessible to the elderly and low-income shoppers.

We’re urging every elected official to work with us to pass these common-sense protections for workers and communities.

And this November, we’re urging every Seattle voter to stand with us and elect Katie Wilson as our next Mayor.

Fred Meyer Closure FAQ, Tele-Town Hall Scheduled for Thursday

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 >>

STORE CLOSURE FAQ

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.

WHAT’S NEXT?

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.

Telephone Town Hall

Thursday, August 21
4:30 PM
Call-in Number: 844-227-7556
Meeting ID: 8789

Metropolitan Market - Continuing Negotiations for What We Deserve

It's been a month since we've been at the table to continue our negotiations with Metropolitan Market. We will continue standing together to win what we deserve and keep to our timeline for success. Our bargaining team knows the issues key to our campaign are:

• Stable and guaranteed hours because our bills don't change with the grocery seasons

• Investments in development opportunities so we can grow and help train new hires

• Meaningful wage increases to keep up with the cost of living

And we have a plan to win:

• Wear your Union button at work: More Staff | More Smiles!

• Start talking to your coworkers about joining a leaflet action at your store

• Join our next all member meeting on August 26 at 6:30 PM

Want to read more about what's on the bargaining table?

Check it out >>

All Member Meeting
Tuesday, August 26
6:30 PM

Bargaining Team:Kelly Shaffer, Uptown (Bakery); Maggie Baze, Mercer Island (Prepared Foods); Bill Graves, Crown Hill (Maintenance); Tori Nakamatsu-Figaroa, Uptown (Cake); Dan Howes, Crown Hill (Produce); Felicity Hoffman, Sand Point (Bakery)