Getting Ready for Negotiations
 Your Union Bargaining Team“You are represented in contract negotiations by a committee of union members like me — workers from different stores and departments. Based on your surveys, the committee proposes changes we want. Then the big grocery chains make their proposals, and negotiations go back and forth. Our priorities are clear: stand up for higher wages, protect our health benefits, and secure our retirement.” —Rhonda Ivie |
On Tuesday, March 9th, the 27 grocery/meat/GM Fred Meyer workers who represent you on the union bargaining team gathered to prepare for our upcoming contract negotiations.
We’ve been preparing for a year, and in December, thousands of union members replied to surveys to offer their input about negotiations and sign up for e-mail updates. Then in February, 400 grocery, meat, and GM Fred Meyer workers from UFCW 21, UFCW 81 and Teamsters 38 joined together to launch our campaign.
Why bargaining matters
This is our opportunity to meet with the employers to negotiate a new contract that sets standards for wages, working conditions, pensions, and health benefits.
What to expect
We all know that the economy has been hurting. However, even in this tough economy, the grocery industry is doing quite well. National grocery store chains are multi-billion dollar corporations because of our hard work.
Pension Basics
The tough economy means that retirement benefits will be a big issue in this year’s negotiations. Here are some basics on how our pension plan works.
- Your union contract requires that the employer pay into the pension fund for each hour you work.
- The trustees of the pension (half from union, and half from employers) then invest the money to make more.
- The money paid in by the employer, plus the money earned from investments, are the total amount of funds available to pay the retirement benefits which you and your co-workers have accrued.
Wall Street greed was a cause of the dramatic stock market collapse of 2008, which left your pension plan with a funding deficit. Having a deficit does not mean the pension is about to run out of money. However, the pension has to be addressed in this bargain to ensure it will be there in the long run.
With a union, we get to bargain what happens to our pension. By acting together, we can push employers to pay their share instead of just cutting benefits.
It’s up to us to get informed, spread the word and stand up for a future we can all depend on.
All in it together
“I am looking forward to working together — UFCW 21, UFCW 81, and Teamsters 38 have all come together to make us 25,000 strong.
We are a united front from Port Angeles to Issaquah, Federal Way to Bellingham. That’s how we win a fair contract.”
Barbara Rhodes (left), Union Bargaining Team Member, QFC #847, with Richard Waits of Haggen and Sharon Russell of Safeway
What you can do today to get ready for negotiations:
Sign up your co-workers for e-mail updates
In the past several weeks, we have gone from 500 to 5,000 email addresses but we still need many more to get information out to members as quickly as possible. If you're not on our e-mail list, click here to sign up today. Then send a message to your union rep and ask to get a list of 10 co-workers who we don’t have e-mail addresses for. Then go get them!
