20/20 Looking Back and Looking Forward
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Dear UFCW 21 members,
At the start of a new year, we find ourselves looking back and looking forward. 2020 was an intense year for most of us, and we face 2021 still in the grip of a public health and economic crisis, alongside a reckoning on racial oppression and an assault on our democracy.
But we also face this new year together, as a union of over 46,000 working people. Many UFCW 21 members put their lives on the line in 2020 to show up for work and keep our communities fed, supplied, and cared for. Thousands of you newly joined us in 2020, making our union stronger in the face of challenges. We have grieved together, celebrated together, and stood side by side fighting for fair pay and safe working conditions.
Together in 2020 we:
Settled 25 contracts, including 70 Memorandums of understanding with employers around COVID safety and benefits.
Welcomed 8,378 new members into our union, including 1,023 members from 8 new units who organized unions at their workplaces for the first time!
Welcome to our union:
Providence St Peter Techs
Summit Pacific Medical Center RNs, Techs, and Service
Providence Centralia Techs and Service
Lourdes Medical Center Service
Seattle Children’s Hospital Medical Assistants
Metropolitan Market Mercer Island
PCC Central District
14 QFC ClickList locations
Kaiser Pharmacy workers
Conducted 41 Telephone Town Hall calls with thousands of members.
Came together and donated 141,867 pieces of Personal Protective Equipment to frontline workers including: 95,600 Gloves, 18,353 N95 Masks, 9,740 goggles, and 6,175 Surgical Masks.
We awarded $42,000 to our 2020 Scholarship Recipients.
2021 will certainly bring new opportunities to accomplish our top priorities, including:
Hazard pay for all essential workers.
Priority vaccine access for essential workers and vulnerable populations.
Personal protective equipment wherever it is needed.
Child care support for working families.
Maintain workers’ right to safety, including enforcement of COVID safety requirements and our right to workplaces free from discrimination.
Milestones in our training and workforce development programs.
Passing a Worker Protection Act and a financial transparency bill for big health care systems in Washington State.
We will win these at bargaining tables, through our city councils and state legislature, through outreach in the press, and directly in our communities and workplaces by speaking up for what we know is right, caring for each other so we can stay in the fight, and standing together in solidarity as a union family.
If you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to reach out. Join us at the Winter General Membership Meetings, check out all the resources on our union website at UFCW21.org, call us at 1-800-732-1188, and get involved however you can. If you need help, you can always file a safety report at safetyreport@ufcw21.org or reach the Rep of the Day at (206) 436-6578.
In solidarity, Faye & Joe
Faye Guenther, President, UFCW 21
Joe Mizrahi, Secretary-Treasurer, UFCW 21
