Grocery Store Workers Stand Up Together

Grocery Store Workers Stand Up Together in Tough Economy --
New Agreement Protects Health & Pension Plans, and Improves Wages

During the first two weeks of December, grocery store workers across nine Puget Sound counties voted to approve a new contract with the big national chain stores by 95%. Included with this vote were many of the local independent grocery store workers. All together, 25,000 union grocery store workers are covered by these contracts negotiated by UFCW 21, UFCW 81, and Teamsters 38.

The big chains (Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC, and Albertsons) came into negotiations in March proposing serious cuts to nearly every part of the contract. But grocery store workers repeatedly took action and stood up together – and ultimately achieved a fair contract even in a tough economy. The fight for a fair contract was on the front page of many newspapers, and heard in dozens of TV and radio stories. (Check out ufcw21.org for contract details, videos, and some news coverage.)

“This shows how regular working people – when they stand together – can make their boss sit down and agree to a reasonable compromise. They wanted to use the tough economy as an excuse to cut our pay and benefits, but we didn’t let them. We secured a better future for ourselves and our families,” said Tasha West-Baker, UFCW 21 member and Safeway worker.

A Long Campaign — That Gets Results

Thousands upon thousands of workers took action over the long campaign, with buttons, stickers, action meetings, the Grocery Store Workers Bill of Rights, and more. Workers won broad support from community organizations (including many times with PSARA members showed solidarity by showing up for actions), other labor unions, and customers.

“We work hard for these companies, but they were trying to use the tough economy to gut our pay and benefits. We stuck together and showed them we weren’t going accept that and made some important improvements for our jobs, protected our health and pension plans, and our wages,” said Lynnette Larson, UFCW 21 Bargaining Team member and Fred Meyer worker.

By mid-October actions had taken place in every single one of the 200+ big chain stores in the area, but the employers were still proposing severe cuts to pay, severe cuts to health and pension benefits, and severe cuts to our working conditions. The time had come to vote.

In mid-November, workers voted by 94% to reject the employers' proposal and authorize a strike. Within days, the employers and the union member bargaining team went back into negotiations. As TV reporters warned of a possible strike by Thanksgiving, customers, community organizations, and other unions showed strong support for the workers. Three consecutive days of bargaining ended just before midnight on November 20th as a tentative agreement was reached.

The campaign of workers standing up and having strong support from the community led to defeating most of the employers' efforts to gut our contract and to reach an agreement that protects benefits and improves wages.

Check out more about the contract and the employer proposals that were defeated at ufcw21.org/connect/grocery-workers.

By Tom Geiger, Communications Director, UFCW 21 & a PASRA Member