Over three days of negotiations that began on June 23, our Union Bargaining Team proposed two new packages that would deliver a living wage, dependable health care, and better working conditions for all. Instead of offering a serious counter-proposal, Macy’s Management offered health care takeaways and a lecture on the affordability crisis

Given these circumstances, our union entered effects bargaining with the company and came to an Agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding (“M.O.U.”) which would provide the impacted employees with certain layoff, transfer, and severance pay rights. This Memorandum required a vote by membership to approve. Details of the memorandum include:

Grand Central Bakery workers came together in November 2025, and we overwhelmingly won our union election by 86% and now after months of bargaining, we are proud to have fought for a great first contract. When we came together and organized, we knew some of the biggest issues were low wages, inconsistent hours, and unpredictable scheduling. Our coworkers knew that something had to change and so we agitated, educated, and organized! This tentative agreement is emblematic of months of hard work to demand industry-changing standards.

After months of negotiations, our Bargaining Committee reached a tentative agreement on June 16! We won because we were organized and prepared to take action to win a fair contract. Some of our contract wins include:  

Yesterday, the union members at Card Kingdom took a steady step towards a new day with a solid contract in place. With a vast majority, the contract was ratified and includes the following:

Our Union Bargaining Team met with the Employer for back-to-back sessions on Monday and Tuesday, June 8 and 9.
We’ve reached tentative agreements on:

• Paid bereavement leave

• Baker premiums for non-Pastry Leads

• 14-hour rest period between scheduled shifts 

• Minimum 32 hours for Culinary Lead, Pastry Lead, Assistant Café Manager 

• Enshrining the practice of paying employees more who are stepping into a higher role temporarily 

• Hazard pay during a state of emergency

Though we’ve set a strong foundation, there’s more work to be done. The Employer’s proposed wage scale is far from what we deserve. We know that our Cafe Team Members deserve more than minimum wage. While the Employer has come closer to our wage proposals for Shift Leads, Culinary Leads, Pastry Leads, and Assistant Café Managers, their hard work also deserves appropriate compensation. 

our Bargaining Team recommend voting YES on the MOU, which offers the effected employees things like: 

Our Bargaining Team is excited to have reached a tentative agreement. Priorities included, better wages, improved language around grace period and attendance.  

On June 3, Macy’s publicly announced that our work gave the company its “strongest first-quarter in four years” -- and then executives turned around and offered our member-led Bargaining Team wage proposals that fall well short of a living wage.

On Monday, our Union Bargaining Team met with Grand Central Bakery to provide our counterproposal to their first economic counter. We shared our counters on wages, scheduling, hours, holidays, healthcare, and retirement.

On Thursday, May 21, our member-led Bargaining Team met with the Employer for our second bargaining where we presented our economic proposals. These included: