Our Bargaining Team is excited to announce that the first Collective Bargaining Agreement for the UFCW 3000-represented workers at Sea Wolf Bakers was ratified yesterday (Tuesday, September 10th) by a majority of those voting!
Read MoreUFCW 3000 has reached a tentative Letter of Understanding (LOU) with Kroger regarding the placement of Fred Meyer employees into open positions at QFC stores if their Fred Meyer store has closed.
Read MoreFirst, some good news. Our team and Fresenius management tentatively agreed to add the PCT III job class to the contract, which we’re hopeful will bring fairer pay and job duty distribution.
Read MoreBargaining 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.
We last met with Recovery Café on September 4 to continue our negotiations. Recovery Café has maintained their position that they want to keep the ability to fire or discipline people without giving them a good reason. It is difficult to overstate how radical this position is.
Read MoreAfter more than six months of negotiations and uniting at our Hospital, our Bargaining Team has reached a tentative agreement and recommends a YES VOTE!
Read MoreOn Friday, September 5 our Bargaining Team met with Management to continue negotiations. We began at 9am and stayed until September 6 at 2:30am Unfortunately, in their last proposal that would resolve the remaining issues, we were given a “Best and Final” offer. We are recommending a “no” vote and moving forward with a contract vote and informational picket to highlight our issues and share our message with the community.
Read MoreOn Thursday, August 28, our bargaining team for the Professionals at Providence St. Peter Hospital met with management for our first official day of contract negotiations… and a productive first day, at that!
Read MoreOur bargaining committee met the employer committee for the first time on August 29. The parties exchange non-economic proposals. Our team introduced the first set of non-economic proposals that seek to improve the working conditions at Skagit Regional Health. Further bargaining dates are scheduled for 9/12 and 10/1.
Read MoreSeptember 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)
After months of bargaining, we've reached a tentative agreement (TA) with Seawolf during our August 26 negotiation!
Read MoreLabor Day is a holiday won by workers, for workers. It’s a day to celebrate the rights we’ve fought for, honor the struggles that got us here, and recommit to building a stronger future together. Join us at one of the Labor Day events happening across our state to stand in solidarity and celebrate working people.
Read MoreOn 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!!"
On Tuesday August 26, our Bargaining Team met with management for our final bargaining session and were able to reach a Tentative Agreement! In the Fully Recommended Settlement Agreement, we established:
Read MoreOn August 25 and 26, our UFCW 3000 nurse bargaining team met with management to continue contract negotiations, bargaining late into the night for over 30 hours across both days.
Read MoreOn Monday, August 25, our RN Bargaining Team met with Hospital management to continue negotiations. We secured a tentative agreement that locks in the Hospital’s 401(k) contributions for the life of the contract—management cannot cut them. We also won new language granting RNs access to the Hospital’s cash balance retirement plan beginning January 2027.
Read More
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.
Our bargaining team met with the employer on August 13 for a half-day session. We agreed on a couple of non-economics and will meet up again on September 16 & 17. After our session, we worked on our response to the employer's proposals.
"Negotiations are a fundamental part of the collective bargaining process, which helps maintain a balance of power in the workplace."
Please register to attend the virtual meeting on Fridays at noon. Our team is excited to talk with you and hear your voice about what is happening in the workplace & questions or concerns you may have >>
Monday September 15, please contact one of the bargaining team members to get your sticker for the day. Let's show our unity & solidarity!
Want to take free online leadership training? Register at Volunteer Opportunities, Events, and Petitions Near Me · UFCW 3000 on Mobilize >>
Please reach out to your bargaining team or Becky Latzel, Union Representative, with any questions or concerns. (509) 340-7370
Bargaining Team: Martin Hernandez, Sarah Edwards, Cirri Cornelius
September 16 & 17
We continue to make progress towards a new collective bargaining agreement. We have spent countless hours talking about what wages in other hospitals look like, and management has finally started coming into bargaining with some proposals worth thinking about. They have indicated that they have no interest in increasing PTO accruals or subsidizing the cost of health benefits more than they currently do, but instead want to invest in some significant wage increases for many jobs that have fallen below market. We disagree on their assessment of pay for some jobs and have shared a lot of data with them. We have also shared personal stories illustrating the ongoing challenges of working short.
Our next bargaining session is scheduled for August 27.
We are holding a Contract Action Meeting immediately following bargaining:
August 27
6:00 PM
Duffy's Meeting Room
1605 Simpson Avenue
Aberdeen WA 98520
For additional information, contact a bargaining team member or Union Representative Kimberly Starkweather (206) 436-6515.
Bargaining Team: Dan James, Eric Timmons, Janet Byrd, Ana Garcia, Debi Sturm, Bambi Shope
We 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.
