Success Is Not For Workers

I have the privilege and honor to be on the contract negotiation team for grocery workers in the Seattle area of Washington State.  Our union, United Food and Commercial Workers (Locals 21, 81, and mine 44), are currently engaged with the three major grocery companies in the area, which are Safeway, Kroger (who owns Fred Meyer, and QFC stores) and Supervalue (who owns Albertsons).

These labor contract talks are part of a large block of agreements that are currently being negotiated all along the West Coast this year.  UFCW has made all of these talks part of a national campaign to fight the wage and benefit concessions that these companies have been demanding from their workers, and to win the pay and benefits they deserve. 

Southern California grocery workers' contract has expired and so they are working on an extension that run in to April.  Albertsons' workers just authorized a strike in that market if their employer doesn't get serious about agreeing to a fair contract.  Which says a lot about how serious these folks are about getting a share of their company's success, especially since there was a strike there three years ago that lasted almost 5 months and cost workers a lot (but the cost the employers more).

Yesterday in Seattle, the bargaining team met with the employers for the second time.  In the first meeting we had floated some very modest proposals that included:

1. Sick pay on the first day (currently workers don't get sick pay until the 3rd day out).  This is more than just a benefit issue, it is a public health one.  Staying home sick instead of coming to work (especially for those who handle food), prevents the spread disease among workers and to the public we serve.  Currently the US Congress is considering legislation that would enact what our contract proposal would do for all US workers.
2. We wanted to make sure that working on Christmas Day would not be required, more stores are currently opening on Christmas, and UFCW members want to make sure that it is solely on a voluntary basis, as Christmas is a huge family holiday for the vast majority of our members.
3. We proposed a system (currently used by one of the employers in some of their stores) to give workers greater control over their weekly schedules, but that would still assure that the employer gets all shifts filled by people qualified to do the work.

Mind you these are all proposals that have nothing to do with wages and health benefits (there were also a lot more of them that I won't go into here).  Those proposals will come after the "non-economic" section of the contract is settled.

Yesterday the employers rejected all of those proposals, and instead made ones that I frankly had a hard time believing that they were serious about:

1. Instead of sick pay on the 1st day sick, they proposed to take away all of the holidays we currently receive, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  They agreed that working on Christmas could be voluntary, as long as they have enough volunteers.  Otherwise it would be required.  The holidays would be switched to "personal days" that could be used for sick days (as long as store management agreed to allow it on a case by case basis).
2. They want to take away overtime after 8 hours of work in a day (that way they can work us as long as they want).
3. They want to eliminate Sunday pay (currently time + 1/3), and any other special pay benefit (like late night pay).
4. They proposed to take away the right of workers to honor the picket lines of other workers on strike, and want to prohibit the union from doing any sort public campaign work to let people know if an employer is treating their workers badly.

That is just a taste of the concessions that these employers want from workers.  I could go on, but I just don't have the stomach for it, and anyway these negotiations should, and will be about what workers want and deserve.  If they think that we are just going to focus on turning back their proposals they are wrong.

Our employers continued to increase their profits and market share both in this region and across the nation, they are doing better today than they ever have.  As workers, our work has given them that success.  We are the ones who serve the customers, stock the shelves, order the products, and check the customers out.  In short we do it all, and we deserve our fair share of the success we create in our workplaces.

The employers have said that success is not for workers.  They are wrong, the success is all of ours.  That is why we are going to win better working conditions, benefits, and pay for ourselves and our families.

tags: workers  ufcw  california  seattle  

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