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
Showing posts with label grocery workers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grocery workers. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Friday, October 1, 2010
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.
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.
Sick Days for All Workers
New coalition aims for a healthier Seattle through paid sick days for all workers
By Alex Stone
It should be as fundamental a standard as the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week. Yet one million Washington workers can’t take a single paid day off from work when they – or their children or their elderly parents – get sick.
Among them is Amber, a 22 year old Seattle-area mother with a 3 year old son. Amber’s current job as a kitchen staffer doesn’t offer her paid time off to care for her son when he gets sick. “When my son was sick, I had to call in sick because he couldn’t go to daycare,” Amber says. “I had to take two days off without pay and I regretted it because I have bills to pay and now I am behind”.
Amber’s story is commonplace in the food service industry, where just 16% of employers offer full-time workers paid sick days, and only 2% offer them to part-time employees. It's no wonder nearly half of "stomach flu" related outbreaks are linked to ill food service workers.
According to the most recent national data, 38% of all workers and two-thirds of the lowest-paid 25% have no paid sick leave. And some grocery and hospital workers – who in theory get sick leave – have to be out two or three days without pay before they can take it.
In 2006, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to adopt minimum paid sick days standards. The law allows all workers in the city to accrue paid sick days – up to 5 days in businesses with fewer than 10 employees and 9 days in larger companies. Since then, both Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee, WI have adopted, but not yet fully implemented, similar measures. New York City and Philadelphia have active campaigns, and a paid sick days bill is before Congress.
The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce is laying the groundwork for paid sick days legislation here by organizing a broad coalition of businesses, community organizations and individuals who support paid sick days for Seattle workers.
A citywide paid sick days standard will benefit public health, allowing workers like Amber to stay home when she or her son get sick. It will promote family economic security by ensuring workers and their families can care for basic health care needs without jeopardizing a day’s wages. It will create healthier workplaces, hospitals, and childcare facilities by limiting the spread of disease. It will lower health care costs by enabling workers to seek preventive care for themselves and their loved ones. Business owners who provide paid sick leave have found that morale, productivity, and customer satisfaction all go up.
There are millions of stories just like Amber’s. Do you have one? Please share it on the Seattle Healthy Workforce website, Help Seattle join other cities in caring for working families. Visit http://seattlehealthyworkforce.org/ to learn more.
(Alex Stone is Communication Manager for the Economic Opportunity Institute.)
By Alex Stone
It should be as fundamental a standard as the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week. Yet one million Washington workers can’t take a single paid day off from work when they – or their children or their elderly parents – get sick.
Among them is Amber, a 22 year old Seattle-area mother with a 3 year old son. Amber’s current job as a kitchen staffer doesn’t offer her paid time off to care for her son when he gets sick. “When my son was sick, I had to call in sick because he couldn’t go to daycare,” Amber says. “I had to take two days off without pay and I regretted it because I have bills to pay and now I am behind”.
Amber’s story is commonplace in the food service industry, where just 16% of employers offer full-time workers paid sick days, and only 2% offer them to part-time employees. It's no wonder nearly half of "stomach flu" related outbreaks are linked to ill food service workers.
According to the most recent national data, 38% of all workers and two-thirds of the lowest-paid 25% have no paid sick leave. And some grocery and hospital workers – who in theory get sick leave – have to be out two or three days without pay before they can take it.
In 2006, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to adopt minimum paid sick days standards. The law allows all workers in the city to accrue paid sick days – up to 5 days in businesses with fewer than 10 employees and 9 days in larger companies. Since then, both Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee, WI have adopted, but not yet fully implemented, similar measures. New York City and Philadelphia have active campaigns, and a paid sick days bill is before Congress.
The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce is laying the groundwork for paid sick days legislation here by organizing a broad coalition of businesses, community organizations and individuals who support paid sick days for Seattle workers.
A citywide paid sick days standard will benefit public health, allowing workers like Amber to stay home when she or her son get sick. It will promote family economic security by ensuring workers and their families can care for basic health care needs without jeopardizing a day’s wages. It will create healthier workplaces, hospitals, and childcare facilities by limiting the spread of disease. It will lower health care costs by enabling workers to seek preventive care for themselves and their loved ones. Business owners who provide paid sick leave have found that morale, productivity, and customer satisfaction all go up.
There are millions of stories just like Amber’s. Do you have one? Please share it on the Seattle Healthy Workforce website, Help Seattle join other cities in caring for working families. Visit http://seattlehealthyworkforce.org/ to learn more.
(Alex Stone is Communication Manager for the Economic Opportunity Institute.)
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