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. 

Kraken Team Store - Grievance Update

UFCW 3000 members at the Kraken Team Store reported that they received emails from BDA stating that they are ineligible to return to work if you're unable to commit to working 70% of the upcoming Kraken games or based on low attendance during the Storm season. We have filed a grievance for all affected UFCW 3000 members because we believe any such policy violates your union contract.

If you received a notification from BDA about the new attendance policy and/or that you are not able to return this upcoming season, please report it to your union representatives Allison Hanley at (206) 436-6586 or Aaron Bailey at (206) 436-6631. You have a right to return for the Kraken season regardless of these new attendance expectations.

The orientation is on Monday, September 15 from 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM. Please plan to attend if you are interested in working during the upcoming Kraken season. If you are unable to attend orientation, but you would like to return for the upcoming Kraken season, let BDA know as soon as possible and reach out to your union representative.

You can review your full union contract for BDA at the Kraken Team Store here >>

Planned Parenthood - Bargaining Moves Forward

Bargaining Team: Shantelle George, Sr MA Phlebotomy; Alison DeBoise, Insurance Biller 1; Charlie King, Union Rep; Nico Montanero, Negotiator; Mackenzie Weiland, Float Clinician; Michel Avery, Clinical Trainer 1

We exchanged economic proposals during our two recent bargaining sessions. Key decision makers from management were candid about the financial situation looking ahead. We had reservations on management's proposals, but we did get creative and come up with counterproposals that we believe help address management's financial concerns while still respecting our hard work. 2026 will be an unpredictable year, but we are working with management to add language to the contract that would help find alternatives to layoffs and health center closures. They proposed a two-year agreement in hopes that PP is in a better place financially in 2027.

Management is confident that health insurance premiums will be going up significantly next year and they proposed that both staff and employer share the cost of the increase and that staff take on the majority of that increase. We countered that management should take the bulk of that increase if not all of it. Management is also proposing staff accrue PTO and sick leave instead of the current preloading practice and we are pushing back.

Talks are still ongoing with management on creating more equitable access to training and advancement for staff. We're continuing discussions with management in hopes of making progress towards an agreement, and our next sessions are scheduled for September 29 and 30.

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) 

Children's Therapy Center - Bargaining Update - Looking ahead

On Wednesday, August 27, our bargaining team met with management for our first official day of negotiations on our first union contract and it was a really productive day!

We began our first bargaining day putting the finishing touches on what we would later present to the employer as our initial contract proposal. Our initial proposal primarily focused on some of the "non-economic" (may not directly relate to money) workplace protections and union rights we hope to win in this process, for instance:

Union Representation: This section establishes union stewards, who are one of us, elected by us, to help in grievance and investigatory matters like Weingarten meetings. A Weingarten meeting is an investigatory meeting conducted by management which could lead to discipline.

Just Cause: We also proposed just cause, which means that there needs to be progressive discipline, rather than the employer having the ability to fire us at-will. They have to document every infraction and we have an opportunity to dispute it if that discipline is unfair or goes against what the contract says.

Labor Management Committee: This is a committee where management has to hear our concerns about working conditions and the administration of the agreement.

Grievance Procedure: Grievance procedures are important to help us enforce our contract, whether related to discipline, scheduling, pay, etc.

After presenting our initial proposals to the employer, we spent the remainder of the day discussing and finalizing proposals to provide to the employer at our next session, including economics (wages, premiums, and more!).

We have scheduled our first Contract Action Team Meeting from 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM, where members of the bargaining team will be available (with the representative Ian Jacobson from the union).

Bargaining Team: Lindsey Gilbert, Mali Olson and Ronda Duluoz

"Day one down!!"