Standing Up for a future we can all depend on

Grocery Store Workers – Standing Up for a future we can all depend on

By Tom Geiger, Communications Director UFCW 21

Our son Isaiah (7) and daughter Naomi (5) will inherit the world we make for them. My wife Aiko and I take that responsibility seriously. Like all parents, we want our kids’ lives to be better than our own.

And fighting for a better future – a future we can all depend on – is just what 25,000 grocery store workers across Puget Sound are doing in the current contract negotiations. These workers – from UFCW 21, UFCW 81, and Teamsters 38 – work in hundreds of stores across the region.

The future we seek is one where workers have: improved wages; quality and affordable health care; a secure pension; as well as scheduling, paid sick days and other policies that are critical to our quality of life.

Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans has been there with the workers every step of the way. PSARA President Robby Stern spoke to over 400 hundred store leaders in February on the eve of our negotiations. Many PSARA members supported our Standing Up for Working Moms events in May and other events since.

Recently, workers and community allies delivered the Grocery Store Bill of Rights to management in all 218 stores. Check out the Bill of Rights at:
http://www.ufcw21.org/grocery2010/bill-of-rights

Whether workers attain a fair contract depends primarily on the level of their unity and action combined with the level of public support. That combination has not been higher anywhere in the nation than it is here in Puget Sound.