On September 11 & 12, our union bargaining team met with ALSCO to begin contract negotiations. We made good progress in those first two days and tentatively agreed on some improvements, including more money going into retirement and the Company paying more into the healthcare costs.
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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.
On September 15, our bargaining team met with Recovery Cafe and made significant progress on our harassment language—including language protecting staff if a Recovery Cafe member harasses staff. We are moving through non-economics and plan to introduce economics at an upcoming session. This would include our vacation, healthcare and retirement benefits, wages, and other economic items.
We'll be discussing the next steps in our bargaining process, highlights of the economic proposal, and how we can win what we deserve at our membership meeting this Thursday at 7:00 PM.
We will hold our next contract membership meeting on September 18 at 7:00 PM.
If you have any questions, please reach out to your bargaining team or your union representative Allison Hanley at (206) 436-6586.
Yesterday (Wednesday, September 17) we held an all-day contract vote on Management’s “Best and Final” offer we were presented with in our last bargaining session on September 5. While we were able to win many improvements on premiums and contract language prior to September 5th, there are still significant unresolved issues. In its totality, the Hospital’s last proposal was not enough to improve staffing, so we recommended a NO vote.
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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.
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.
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.
With our 2nd meeting with the employer under our belts, we are excited to share some updates. On Friday September 12, we continued conversations around non-economics that included rights of union stewards, bulletin boards, union access to the premises, sub-contracting, and others. SRH listened to our concerns and agreed to many of our proposals, maybe with a tweak or two.
Read MoreUFCW 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 >>
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 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.
