UFCW 3000 Member Story: Kelly Kanary

Kelly Kanary

Kelly Kanary has been working for Kaiser Permanente as a Certified Registered Nursing Anesthetist since 2015. Many union activists don’t get involved until workplace issues arise and suddenly they are getting a crash course in shop floor organizing, which is how Kelly got involved.

With Kelly it was the Continuing Education requirements that Kaiser CRNAs has that started things off for her. To maintain certification, CRNAs, like other healthcare workers, must complete a high level of continuing education hours, often called CEs. Without meeting those CE requirements, workers can lose their certification and employment. Kelly worked with her colleagues and management to improve how they get the time needed for the required Continuing Education.

Kelly really enjoyed advocating for her coworkers and has now led her team of CRNAs at Capitol Hill through during a shift rebid period and has started serving on the Staffing Committee. CRNA’s at Kaiser’s Central Hospital on Capitol Hill are lucky to have her in their court!

UFCW 3000 Member Story: Members Leaders Fight for Safety at the U-District Safeway

From Left to Right Prince Heart, Kevin Daly, and Sean Ricco at the U-District Safeway

The University District in Seattle has long had reputation of having problems with people experiencing mental illness and substance abuse disorders. Unfortunately the housing crisis has only made these issues more visible and at times more dangerous. Workers at the Seattle U-District Safeway have been dealing with a series of increasingly violent incidents at their store, especially in the liquor department.

Prince Hart, Sean Ricco, Kevin, Daly, and Solas McGregor decided to take action to highlight their safety concerns. They started a petition to discuss their concerns and ways to help solve the problem. After collecting a majority of signatures of their coworkers they “marched on the boss” to talk with store management about the probelm.

Out of their talks they got agreements to post a security guard in the liquor dept during operating hours, an additional security guard to sweep the store, have two members scheduled in liquor so no one is alone, and the use of walkie talkies for dept leads to enable quick communication of potentially dangerous situations. U-D district Safeway workers now have some additional tools to deal with potential violence in their workplace.

Safeway can’t directly control larger problems outside the store, but it is clearly the Employer’s responsibility to provide a safe workplace and have a plan in place to deal with violence in the workplace. And workers have a right to take collective action to make sure the Employer lives up to that responsibility, and to push management to do more when necessary.

If you and your coworkers are facing problems like these in the workplace, reach out to your Union Representative who can help create a plan of action to fight and win, just like U-District Safeway union members did!

UFCW 3000 Member Story: Vanessa Evans

Vanessa Evans and her Husband

Grocery Workers on the Eastside of the Cascades are currently fighting for a fair contract from employers that have talked a great game about how much they appreciate the sacrifices that their employees have made over the last 4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic; but have yet to show it substantially in negotiations. In 2022 UFCW Locals 1439 and 21 joined together creating Local 3000 because they knew that with the continued consolidation of the power of corporate and investment capitol, solidarity would be the key to winning against huge financial interests.

As a twenty-nine year Safeway employee in Spokane Washington, who has been a shop steward for twenty of those years, Vanessa Evans has seen that consolidation over decades of work in the grocery business. From the consolidation of small to medium local chains to the merger of Albertsons and Safeway in 2015, to the current fight to stop the Kroger/Albertsons mega-merger, Vanessa has seen these employers relentlessly increase their profits at the expense of the workers who operate the business that creates those profits in the first place.

“I stepped-up to become a shop steward years ago because we needed one at our store,” says Vanessa who is now the receiving clerk at the Spokane Valley Safeway. “I love telling managers that we have union business to discuss, and that means we’re equals while we talk!” When workers put the power of the Union on the shop floor, it puts the boss on notice that “the union” is always there, not just when a union staff representative is servicing the worksite. That also happens during negotiations when workers sit directly across from management to bargain the next contract.

When bargaining began last year, Vanessa joined the bargaining committee for the first time. It was no surprise when the Employers responded to the Union’s proposals by saying that wages for Puget Sound grocery were based on a higher cost of living in that region. Vanessa and other committee members were tired of this excuse, so they compared grocery receipts from Western Washington stores to Eastern Washington stores.

It was not shocking at all that the totals were nearly identical, “When I saw that, I knew we couldn’t back down.” Vanessa and her coworkers across the Inland Northwest organized to make clear how big of a fight these employers face if they do not recognize how “essential” their work is!

Recently, over two days at the beginning of March, workers across Oregon, Idaho, & Eastern Washington conducted info pickets and leafleting actions at union grocery stores. Vanessa made sure that as a bargaining committee member word got out, and that at her store they had as many people possible recruited. That was especially important as it turned out that the day her store was picketing, she had to care for a family member who would be having surgery.

Info Picket at the Spokane Valley Safeway in Early March

And turn out they did, not just at Vanessa’s Spokane Valley store; but at picket after picket across the region. Grocery workers had back-up, because the public and community allies joined in solidarity on the picket lines.

The bargaining committee returns to the table soon to talk with the employers, but they aren’t waiting around. More Contract Action Team meetings are planned and the bargaining committee has the campaigned mapped out, including possible strike authorization vote dates and other actions if needed.

Last month we featured some of the leaders of the 2013 Puget Sound Grocery Store Campaign, who stood their ground until the Employers offered a fair contract just two hours before the strike was to begin. That struggle never ended and is continuing today on the Eastside of the Cascades. Make no mistake, Vanessa Evans and her fellows will accept nothing less than a fair contract, and are ready to do what is necessary to get it!

Women's History Month Member Stories: Leaders from the 2013 Grocery Store Contract Campaign

From Left to right Sue Wilmot, Rhonda Fisher-Ivie, Amy Dayley Angell, and Faye Guenther

As the 2013 contract negotiations between UFCW 21, UFCW 367, Teamsters 38, and the national grocery chains (represented by Allied Employers) in Western Washington opened, it was obvious that it was going to be a fight to win a fair contract. Workers were more united than ever and since 2004 they had been fighting to protect their contract, so concessions to the employers were out of the question.

Allied Employers, on the other hand (Albertsons, Kroger, and Safeway), were expecting to continue to cut their overhead at the expense of workers, and had prepared a long list of takeaways. As is often the case, women leaders in our Union stepped up big time to lead this contract fight, from the shop floors to coordinating the field campaign.

From the get-go things were tough, according to Bremerton Safeway worker Sue Wilmot: “The Employers’ first proposals had a picture of President Barack Obama signing the Affordable Care Act into law because they wanted to double the number of hours we needed to qualify for health care insurance. That would have been devasting to mothers working these jobs to provide benefits to their families.”

Sue had seen this before. In addition to serving on other bargaining teams, in 1989 she had walked the line during a grocery strike for over 90 days—often with her daughters, who were 3 and 5 years old at the time. Sue was not about to accept an insulting health care proposal like this. “I ripped up their proposals right in front of them. I know we didn’t want to show a reaction like that at the bargaining table, but I just couldn’t let that pass!”

In addition to cutting workers off their health care, the employers also wanted deep cuts to the pensions for Meat Department and Grocery workers, minimal raises, and were refusing to address important issues like keeping pay scales above the rising minimum wage, paid sick leave, and cashiers being terminated for mistakes in processing WIC transactions. Rhonda Fisher-Ivie, a cashier at Safeway in South King County at the time, had recently seen “two longtime coworkers with 15-20 years of service get terminated for WIC violations.”

These were a few of the many difficult issues that the bargaining team faced as they talked with employers unwilling to do much of anything to improve things. Faye Guenther had years of experience as an organizer with UFCW 1001 (one of the founding locals of the merged Local 21) and SEIU in Oregon. She knew that in order for the Union bargaining coalition to succeed in getting tough issues addressed, the rank-and-file was going to need to be ready—not just to threaten a strike, but be ready to actually strike. Organizing a powerful field campaign, workers started out by wearing union buttons and leafletting customers in front of their stores. “From there, we moved to escalations like a flash mob for paid sick leave” at the University Village QFC, says Faye. After that came coordinated July info pickets at locations across Western Washington, followed by “rolling info pickets at multiple stores throughout the day” in late summer.

Amy Dayley Angell was a cashier at the Wallingford QFC in Seattle and had recently stepped up to become a union leader at her store when a grocery clerk was terminated for misreading an ID during a tobacco sale. She started a petition that a supermajority of workers at the store signed and eventually convinced QFC to bring back their coworker. As the contract campaign heated up, Amy kept her coworkers informed and recruited them for the actions throughout the summer including the info picket at their store.

In September, the Union bargaining team called for strike votes. Keeping coworkers educated about the stakes of the negotiations and reminding them of the need to act in solidarity was key as the strike votes approached. The campaign had started in March of 2013 and it looked like it would go well into October. Keeping everyone engaged and organized was something that rank-and-file leaders and staff organizers worked on from the beginning, and it started to pay off.

“People got behind it right away,” says Rhonda. “They were ready to act!” The strike authorization passed with over 90% of members voting to strike if called for. The membership of the three unions were elated, but knew that now things were getting serious. Preparing for a strike was the next thing leaders had to do.

Amy and other shop stewards started to attend picket captain trainings, where they learned how to draft picket schedules for their stores, explain to coworkers what is expected on a strike line, and how they could get strike relief pay. More and more grocery store workers were stepping up to become picket captains and leaders in the store. Solidarity and resolve were edging out fear and anxiety.

“It was a bonding experience,” says Sue. “We were organizing babysitting networks so parents could walk the line, and made maps of where people could shop and get prescriptions filled during a strike and not cross the picket line.”

“As the campaign escalated with strike votes and picket captain meetings, the number of activists kept getting bigger and bigger,” explains Amy. “And then in October, the Union bargaining coalition delivered a 72-hour strike notice to the Employers, and everything changed quickly!”

Faye says that at this point the campaign started to become “transformative not just for grocery workers, but for our union as a whole.” UFCW 21, Teamsters 38, and UFCW 367 set up a giant countdown clock at Westlake Park in Downtown Seattle. Nightly rallies were held, which quickly made the countdown clock THE place for grocery workers to be. Customers pledged to not cross the picket line at their local grocery store and they let store managers know it. The workers had broad support from across the community.

Emily and Lacey Wilmot (Sue Wilmot’s daughters) at the Countdown Clock in WestLake Park

Grocery workers and their families came from all over region to the clock. Sue’s daughters, who had walked the picket line with their mom during the 1989 strike, made a special trip from Bremerton to join in the fun and brought donations of diapers and food for striking families.

“Being at the clock was inspiring!” relates Amy. “My coworkers and I went as often as we could. It was the first time we felt our collective power as grocery workers!”

Rhonda confirms this as well: “Everyone shared the same passion, had the same goal… We were ready for a strike!”

At the bargaining table, the Employers quickly began to move, agreeing to reform their WIC transaction policy, keeping the health care as-is, making further moves to secure the the pensions, and putting more money into wages.

Besides getting the last few takeaways off the table, “it came down to better transfer language between departments, or making sure that our pay scales stayed above minimum wage,” Sue explains. The contract already guaranteed that the starting wage had to be above minimum wage, but the Union bargaining coalition wanted to make sure each step had a higher wage than they one below it. Sue says it was a tough decision, “but we went for the progressive wage scale.” This turned out to be an important decision, and today above-minimum-wage progressive wage scales have become the standard for many union workplaces represented by UFCW 3000.

The strike was averted just two hours before it was to begin. In early November of 2013, grocery store workers at all three unions ratified the new contract!

Faye was right to say that the 2013 grocery store campaign was “transformative.” So many new leaders stepped up, and many of them were women. That leadership continues today, not just with grocery workers, but in all the industries where our UFCW 3000 members work.

Rhonda Fisher-Ivie relocated to Southern California and was hired as a union rep by UFCW 770, and eventually returned to Washington State and works at UFCW 3000 representing her former coworkers.

Amy Dayley Angell continued grow as a shop steward and eventually began serving on the UFCW 3000 Executive Board, and has been on two grocery store bargaining committees. “After 2013, I knew I needed to be in this fight, and so I threw myself into the center.” She is currently keeping her coworkers informed about the UFCW 3000 grocery store negotiations in Eastern Washington, Idaho, and Northern Oregon, and preparing them for the 2025 grocery negotiations in Puget Sound.

Sue Wilmot continued to serve on the Executive Board until 2020 when she was hired at UFCW 3000 to work in the Member Resource Center talking to members and investigating their potential grievances. She retired in 2023 and is now spending time babysitting her grandchildren for her daughters, one of whom works as a barista at a Safeway Starbucks kiosk (which is a union position of course).

Faye Guenther continued to lead field campaigns at the Union and has worked with staff and members to expand the number of shop stewards in worksites. She served as Staff Director, Secretary Treasurer, and now serves as the elected President of UFCW 3000.

Women’s history is labor history! And it is ongoing. New leaders, many of them women, are stepping forward in all industries of our union and the labor movement as a whole. In 2022, UFCW 21 and UFCW 1439 came together to form UFCW 3000, the largest UFCW local in the country and the largest union local in Washington State. The grocery and meat members East of the Cascades are bargaining their contracts and just finished a round of info pickets, building solidarity and keeping each other engaged and organized. And women leaders are at the front of that fight, too.

Women's History Month Member Story: Tacoma General Lab Techs Organize to Be Heard

Cheyenne Corneau

Cheyenne Corneau had been working as a Medical Lab Technician for about a year in 2022 when her and her coworkers Colleen, and Marisa were talking about the need to get their coworkers involved in the union for better representation for lab techs at the next bargaining table. Looking around the region, they saw that their wage scale was below market value and they knew that in order to change that, their coworkers needed to be involved and ready to show MultiCare that their compensation needed to change.

So they reached out to their union representative to start building their Tacoma General med lab unit for the next negotiations. Cheyenne, Marisa, and Colleen talked to their coworkers about what they all thought the goals for negotiations should be, and asked them what they thought was needed to get it done and if they would take action to show MultiCare that they were serious.

When surveys for the MultiCare contract went out, they made sure that their coworkers filled them out and made their priorities clear. After that, they moved on to hosting meetings to talk to coworkers about the next steps. These were gatherings at their residences where everyone took ownership of the campaign and mapped out the workplace to make sure the message got out to everyone. Not only were Cheyenne, Colleen, and Marisa leaders, they were recruiting and training others to take the lead. That is how the rank-and-file builds power for themselves as a union.

In late 2023, Cheyenne was asked to serve on the MultiCare bargaining committee and agreed, giving lab workers a seat at the negotiation table. Other labs involved in the bargain heard about what is going on at the Tacoma General Med Tech Lab and have started to get more engaged right as these negotiations kick into high gear.

The women of UFCW 3000 are making history for workers every day. We are proud to be able to feature just a few of their stories for Women’s History Month!

Women's History Month Member Story: Northwest Center Early Supports Workers

The NOrthwest Center Early Supports Bargaining Team, From left to bottom to right: Kaylee Ainge, Kirsten Syberg, Kimberly Burns, and Jenica Barrett

In 2022 Early Supports workers at Northwest Center decided to form a union and contacted organizers at UFCW 3000. Northwest Center is a not-for-profit organization that provides assistance and support to people with disabilities or those who care for them. The Early Supports Services program offers services to children who have issues with their early development along with their families.

Bargaining team member Jennica Barrett said their team provides “speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and resource coordination. We’re kind of a holistic child-focused team.” Kimmy Burns, also on the bargaining committee, added that Early Supports is about “making sure these kids can excel” as well as educating parents and caregivers, and connecting them with the resources needed “to care for their children.”

These workers are professionally trained therapists who care very deeply about the families they serve. As the world moved away from pandemic restrictions being a part of daily life, they were seeing increasing problems with their working conditions and how it was impacting the quality of the care that they were able to give. The leadership of Northwest Center wasn’t seeing what they were seeing, so the Early Supports workers began meeting as a group to talk about solutions.

Often the professional care and support of children is work done by women. From daycare to primary education to healthcare, women overwhelmingly are the ones doing the work to care for our children, and unfortunately that can mean that this work is undervalued, underpaid, or made invisible. Caregivers can be expected to sacrifice fair pay, good working conditions, and a voice on the job, or made to feel guilty for being selfish when they try to change that.

The women at Northwest Center Early Supports knew that they did not have to accept this, and understood that advocating for better compensation and working conditions for themselves would help, not harm, the families they served. They concluded that they needed to organize a union to make sure that their voices were heard and that they could meet with management at the bargaining table as equals.

After they won their election they formed a bargaining committee (and added to it after a member left Early Supports), then got down to business at the bargaining table, where they continued to assert themselves as an independent voice speaking out on behalf of themselves and their client families. They started an Instagram page for their unit, including creating their own Early Supports Union Logo, and did not hold back in letting everyone know just how important their struggle was and how committed to it they were:

Early Supports Union’s First Graphic Post

To show union solidarity in the workplace they had stickers, static cling decals, and coffee mugs with the logo they made. Management was definitely hearing from members at the bargaining table and in their offices!

First contract bargains can take a long time to complete and are nearly always difficult because the Union is literally bargaining with the Employer over everything. But because of the strong solidarity of this bargaining unit and the strong women leaders who knew they were making history, the Early Supports Union reached a tentative agreement in late January 2024, and ratified their first contract in February.

In their contract they won:

• Wage scales with raises every year

• A caseload system to start to ensure that client families got the proper care they need

• Better break times

• Increased paid time off

• New wage recognition for education, degrees, previous job experience, and tenure

• Basic seniority rights and protection from unjust discipline

There were many other victories in their first contract, and so the group worked with their union rep to hold a meeting for everyone to learn about their new rights under the union contract and how to make sure the contract is enforced.

The women leaders of Northwest Center Early Supports did what they set out to do, made history, and laid a foundation for others, but they aren’t stopping now. They look forward to upcoming Labor Management Committee meetings, and the next bargain in 3 years!

Black History Month Member Story: Sam Dancy

Sam Dancy

Sam Dancy has been a union steward and workplace leader for nearly 30 years. Sam has served on the executive board of what was then UFCW Local 21 and, after the merger with Local 1439, he continues to serve on the executive board as a vice president of UFCW 3000. “I try to be a good steward and representative for my coworkers, union, and community,” is how Sam sees his work as a trade union activist.

RIGHT TO WORK, OR RIGHT TO WORK FOR LESS?

Sam’s union activism took him to St. Louis, Missouri, in 2015 to help overturn the state’s recent change from a pro-union state to a so-called “right to work” state. (“Right to work,” of course, has nothing to do with workers’ rights to have a job, but instead simply limits union rights.) Sam’s decision to go all the way to Missouri to help their campaign to overturn that far-right anti-union law was not only informed by his commitment to protecting and building a strong labor movement, but also by the racist rhetoric that the anti-union campaigns used that tried to divide workers by race. Missouri voters agreed and voted to restore the state to being pro-union!

ORGANIZING FOR HIGHER WAGES AT THE BARGAINING TABLE AND BEYOND

It was after that 2015 campaign that Sam joined the UFCW 21 executive board. Having worked at QFC since 1991, Sam saw grocery store jobs go from living-wage jobs to jobs where he and his coworkers struggled to make ends meet. In addition to organizing in his Westwood Village QFC, in 2016 Sam served on the bargaining committee for the Allied Employer grocery and meat contract negotiations. In 2013, Sam and other shop stewards had prepared their stores to go on strike—a strike averted just two hours before the Union’s deadline. In 2016, the bargaining committee came to the table and made clear to the Employers that they were prepared to do it again if management didn’t listen. The Employers did not want another big fight, and the contract was settled in record time.

After that, Sam and other union activists shifted to collecting signatures for a landmark ballot initiative, I-1433, which raised Washington State’s minimum wage and enacted paid sick leave for workers statewide. The initiative passed easily, and both in counties where the Republican presidential candidate carried and where the Democratic candidate did, showing that working-class values are wildly popular across partisan political lines.

Then he served on the 2019 grocery and meat bargaining committee and helped secure the Sound Retirement Trust’s future, a fight that had been going on since 2008 when the mortgage crisis sent many pension funds into deep funding problems. The 2019 contract settlement was just four months ahead of the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted grocery workers across the world and saw them finally get recognition for their important role in feeding our communities. The term Essential Worker became part of our everyday language during the pandemic.

Sam served on the 2022 bargaining committee as well, and laid out the goals of 2022’s grocery and meat negotiations: "All essential workers deserve to not have to live from paycheck to paycheck. One job should be enough! Grocery store workers deserve stability, and it’s time the employer did their part to guarantee us fair wages, workplace safety, and respect on the job." The 2022 negotiations not only saw historic wages but also addressed the income inequality in different store departments, where some clerks found themselves making 2 or more dollars less than their coworkers in other departments.

BLACK LIVES MATTER AT WORK AND IN OUR COMMUNITIES

The pandemic wasn’t the only historic event of 2020. The murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of police touched off protests across the nation, with African Americans and other people of color demanding an end to the often lethal over-policing they were subject to. Sam and other coworkers wanted to show solidarity with the movement and to demand change. Our union distributed Black Lives Matter buttons to all members who wanted to wear them on or off the job. Equality and fair treatment are working-class issues and that means they are union issues!

Unfortunately Kroger, the parent company of Sam’s employer QFC, sought to silence this basic expression of solidarity. That was an unacceptable infringement on our right to act together as union workers, and Sam had something to say about it: “When we as workers speak out through these buttons and collectively say Black Lives Matter and then QFC and Fred Meyer said to take the buttons off, that was insulting and a violation of the law.” Our union filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge with the federal government, and Sam was one of the key leaders who spoke up about Kroger’s attempt to silence grocery workers.

And in the end, our union won! In 2023 an NLRB administrative judge ruled against Kroger. “We knew all along we had the right to call out social and racial injustice in the workplace and in our neighborhoods, and this judge’s decision reiterates that right,” Sam said.

As you can see, Sam Dancy has repeatedly been an important part of the history of UFCW 3000, the victories that we have won together, and the ongoing struggle for social and workplace justice. The backbone of any union is in the leaders and shop stewards in the workplace, and Sam is a great example of how we get the job done!

UFCW 3000 Member Stories: Kamila Aburkis

Kamila Aburkis

Kamila Aburkis works in the deli at the Kirkland Metropolitan Market and enjoys her work, both preparing delicious food and serving her customers, “Maintaining strong customer relationships is important to me. My goal is to be a friendly face to our customers, so they keep coming back.”

Kamila previous worked at Fred Meyer as a cake decorator, having taken a class in the trade when she previously lived in Utah. Her food experience however, goes far beyond cake decorating:

“I have extensive experience in the kitchen and have had a catering business in the past. I solely cooked for up to 500 people at times for my local mosque. I would make my family recipe of fataha, which is a fried tuna sandwich, using my family recipe. I also would make a stuffed cauliflower (with a ground beef mixture). I was also known for making another family recipe of Malahowta, which is a beef stewed with a lot of parsley. Libyan couscous, Libyan soup, and baklawa.”

“I wrote a cookbook years ago on North African cooking, which has all my family recipes. I copywrited it, but have not published it.”

Wow! Not only are we amazed, but are also hungry and are hoping that someday her cookbook will be published.

Away from work, Kamila enjoys exercising and spending time with her kids and grandkids (who of course she loves cooking for). She raised her children as a single mother after her husband passed away suddenly in 1996 and is very proud of them, “One child has a law degree and one has a medical degree.”

Recently Kamila stepped up to offer aid and solidarity to UFCW 3000 members working at area Macy’s stores who were on strike, by agreeing to appear in a commercial for the contract campaign. Unfortunately, it won’t air, because fortunately Macy’s finally settled the contract with their workers, ending the strike last week, and members just ratified the contract on Monday, January 29th. But her efforts do not go unrecognized! Because it is members like Kamila who truly are the backbone of the labor movement and an inspiration to all workers!

Kamila Burkis, her union rep Rhonda FIsher-Ive and two photographers at the Macy’s commercial shoot

UFCW 3000 Member Story: Emma Perdomo

Emma Perdomo and her dogs out and about

Emma Perdomo received her Bachelor of Science from Southern New Hampshire University in Health Information Management. She moved to Washington with her husband and applied at North Valley Hospital in Tonasket Washington. Emma got the job and was placed on the union-bargained wage scale but suspected it wasn’t the correct step.

After speaking with her union representative at the new member meeting and getting a better understanding of the contract she emailed HR one more time quoting the relevant contract language, HR agreed to move her up one step on the wage scale to a higher pay rate. It goes to show you that advocating for yourself on the job is good, but advocating for yourself with a union contract behind you is better!

During her downtime, Emma enjoys spending time with her husband, Eddie, and taking her two mixed Huskie-German Shepherds, Malia & Kona for walks to explore Washington’s gorgeous outdoors.

If you are new on the job, drop by our New Members page to fill out your union application, learn about our union, and New Member Meetings to get educated about your rights on the job!

UFCW 3000 Member Story: Annie and Sarah

Annie Walton (left) and Sarah Tran Lau

Annie Walton and Sarah Tran Lau are both new union stewards at Kaiser Permanente working at the Renton Admin Building that holds the regional lab. Sarah and Annie, after working behind the scenes on vital lab work, became fed up with wages continuing to be below market. With the support of UFCW 3000, Sarah and Annie organized with their coworkers about the issue, wrote a petition for higher wages, and got over 80% of their lab coworkers across KP WA to sign on. Through this action, they've learned a lot about how to organize in their workplace.

When they delivered the petition, they included testimony from lab workers across the state, a video with support from UFCW3000 KP stewards in other job classifications, and community ally support. Since then KP has committed to making wage adjustments for job classifications way behind, which we know would include the laboratory workers. We hope Kaiser will do the right thing...sooner rather than later!

UFCW 3000 Member Story: Allison Smith

Allison Smith at the Issaquah PCC during the recent contract vote meetings. It’s pretty clear where she stands on the offer that was voted down.

Allison Smith has worked for PCC as a meat cutter since 2013, and is currently home-stored at the Issaquah store, which has been great for her as it is close to home.

During Allison’s time at PCC, she has stepped up to become a leader, including currently serving on the bargaining team for the new PCC contract. She knows that to win a fair contract, bargaining team members not only have to represent coworkers in negotiation sessions with management but also have to be organizing on the shop floor. Allison not only keeps her Issaquah meat and grocery coworkers informed and ready to take action, she also reaches out to other meat departments in the area to make sure that PCC management knows it isn’t just the bargaining committee at the table, it is all PCC workers collectively fighting together!

Petitions, fliering customers outside the store, and info picket lines aren’t done by activists. It is the rank-and-file union members standing together in solidarity that advance a contract campaign. Recently PCC members voted to reject their employer’s latest contract offer, and held info pickets just ahead of the Holidays. There will be more actions to come unless PCC offers a fair union contract to its workers, and it will be shop stewards like Allison leading the way.

Organizing to fight for better working conditions, wages, and safety is as much of a full-time job as the job that our employers hired us for. Allison’s coworkers are lucky to have such a dedicated activist representing them at the PCC bargaining table!

UFCW 3000 Member Stories: Michael McDonald

Michael MCDonald and his two daughters Emma and Elizabeth, and his wife Melanie Pose for a holiday Selfie

Michael McDonald is an Emergency Department Tech in the pediatric department at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane Washington. Michael assists doctors and nurses in giving care to kids who come into the Emergency Room and makes sure that the rooms and equipment are ready to go when needed. Michael works closely with his coworkers throughout the hospital, making sure that the Union contract is being enforced and that everyone is updated on the latest news, be that negotiations, grievances, or UFCW 3000 business in general. He is a fantastic leader! Michael is also a UFCW E-board, Health Care Advisory Board, and a conference committee member. Outside of the workplace, Michael spends time with his wife Melanie, and two daughters Emma and Elizabeth. The support that Michael gives is outstanding!

UFCW 3000 Member Stories: Sheila Sloan-Evans

SHeila SLoan-Evans in the deli

Here is Sheila Sloan-Evans’s story in her own words:

Prior to the pandemic, I was a job coach with Northwest Center in a high school transition program. I so enjoyed training a client in his new grocery job that I realized grocery might be a fit for me too! I have been a PCC member for many years, but during COVID, the Redmond PCC was my go-to store, always a safe and welcoming place with quality products.

I began work at PCC on October 4th, 2022. I take customer service and food safety seriously but also have fun in the process. I enjoy helping people in both French and English--and attempting to learn Spanish from my coworkers!

In late May of this year, Sheila became injured off the job and had to apply for a leave of absence. It was here that her story took a troubling turn:

I provided Redmond PCC and HR a return-to-work letter for July 7th, 2023; Redmond staff and managers were very supportive. PCC human resources called me en route to surgery to terminate me as ineligible for the 6 weeks off and inform me that my insurance coverage would end the next day as well. It was devasting.

Sheila reached out to her rep and the Member Resource Center, who filed a grievance for her termination. After some meetings with PCC, they agreed to restore her employment and bring her back to work!

I truly love this job. I say that every day and am genuinely surprised by that, as it is an unexpected joy to work with these great people in grocery who have so much to teach me. The support of the union was essential. Having strong union advocates really helped me focus on healing and getting back to work. Thank you!!

UFCW 3000 Member Stories: Brian Peters

Brian Peters leads a chant on the Macy’s Picket Line

For 3 days, starting on Black Friday this year, Macy’s workers went on strike over their employer’s unfair labor practices of retaliation and bargaining in bad faith. Macy’s stores at Southcenter, Alderwood, and Bellingham malls picketed outside their store asking for their customers’ support.

If you came to the Alderwood strike line you definitely would have seen and heard Brian leading chants for hours each day of the strike. He started leading chants on Black Friday and everyone loved his steady energy that kept the picket line moving! Once he tried out the mic, Brian was hooked. A 15-year employee in men’s suits, Brian always came to Macy’s picket line looking snazzy and ready to chant for Macy’s to negotiate in good faith. We are so glad you used your voice, Brian!

The Macy’s bargaining team resumes bargaining today, Monday, December 18th with a federal mediator present during the sessions. Stay tuned for updates!

Congratulations 2023 Essential Workers Organizing Academy Graduates!

In April 2023, we began our first Essential Workers Organizing Academy (EWOA) cohort, hiring eight full-time and one-half time “apprentice organizers.” Candidates were drawn from UFCW 3000 members in healthcare and grocery, as well as from external organizing campaigns and a general applicant pool.​

The program was broken up into three distinct phases: training, internal organizing, and external organizing/preparing for strikes. ​Training included exercises and readings about how to conduct organizing conversations and campaigns, learning about the history of unionization and organizing workers, presentations from guest speakers, and visits to both union and non-union worksites. Apprentice organizers supported on campaigns that included Macy’s, Bartell Drugs, Fred Meyer(s), PCC, Providence-Everett, as well as political and community projects. ​

Congratulations to the EWOA class of 2023!

Post-EWOA, our goal is to help every apprentice organizer who wants to continue in the labor movement to find a job either with this union or another movement organization. 

UFCW 3000 Member Story: Kyle Chrisman

Kyle Chrisman

Kyle Chrisman has been working at LabCorp for almost 18 years on Capitol Hill as a phlebotomist. Kyle is dedicated to his patients and coworkers, which is why he fights so hard to build collective power on the job. Kyle is currently serving on the LabCorp union bargaining committee. Phlebotomist union members at LabCorp have often had their concerns ignored by their employer and Kyle is ensuring that LabCorp hears them loud and clear during negotiations.

LabCorp is having trouble staffing and retaining workers and union members know why, LabCorp needs to provide competitive wages and benefits. The City of Seattle recently announced that the minimum wage within city limits would be going up 6.85%, which helps workers keep pace with the increased costs of living and working in the city. Instead of proposing a wage scale based on the percentage, LabCorp simply bumped all positions that were under the new minimum wage rate of $19.97. This compresses the scale so that several of the steps are at the same rate. LabCorp then maintained their offer of below-market raises, decreased percentages between steps above minimum wage, and higher health care costs.

Kyle and his fellow bargaining committee members know that is simply not realistic when it comes to making ends meet and safely caring for patients. That is why the bargaining committee updated their proposal to reflect the effects of the new minimum wage throughout their wage instead of just meeting it like LabCorp.

Stay tuned as Kyle and his fellow union members fight for a better contract and better patient care, they have already held one info picket are prepared to take further action to ensure a fair contract!

UFCW 3000 Member Stories: Shama Ramzan

Shama RamZan (furthest to the left) in The now closed Des Moines Bartell Drugs

Before Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy it had started to close area stores, including the Bartell Drugs stores that they had purchased in 2021. Unfortunately for Shama Ramzan and her coworkers, one of them was the Des Moines Bartell Drugs. Under the union contract, however, workers had rights to severance pay based on their years of service with Bartell Drugs.

Contract negotiations for Bartell Workers had already been underway when the first round of store closures was announced, and so the Union at the bargaining table began to ask questions about the scope and timeline for any planned store closures.

Shama and her coworkers at other locations began to speak up and demanded that Rite Aid be transparent about the store closures and insist that benefits would be paid out on a timely basis. Because of Shama and her coworkers’ advocacy, the Union was able to successfully fight back against Rite Aid’s delays in communication and ensure that Bartell Drugs union members received the severance deserved on a timely basis.

Rite Aid’s failure as a company is not the fault of the employees! Sometimes it is when times are toughest that having a union really counts, and can ensure that even when your store closes, there are benefits to help cushion the blow.

UFCW 3000 Member Story: Vanessa Wixom

Vanessa Wixom and her daughter enjoy some time outdoors

Vanessa Wixom works as a Pharmacy Tech at the Riverfront location for Kaiser Permanente in Spokane Washington.  Vanessa is a fantastic leader in her workplace, and is always very proactive she and her coworkers have concerns by making sure that their rights as union workers are respected by Kaiser.  Outside of work Vanessa is a mom, loves spending time with her family, and enjoying the outdoors with the gorgeous Northwest scenery in Eastern Washington.  Vanessa’s love for the outdoors has led her to be a volunteer for the local River/Park cleanups in Spokane to make sure that others can enjoy them.  Thank you for all of your hard work Vanessa!

UFCW 3000 Member Story: Craig White

Craig White

Craig came to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett (PRMCE) a year and a half ago. Craig might be relatively new to Prov Everett, but he is not new to the staffing labor/management committees required at hospitals. Craig was also on a staffing committee at his last hospital and knows how important it is for nurses to fight for the proper staffing levels to ensure patient safety and nurse longevity on the job. When he quickly joined his staffing committee at PRMCE, he showed how passionate he is about patient care and proactively securing the working conditions that make safety possible.

As we write this, the nurses at PRMCE are less than 24 hours away from an unfair labor practice strike, where the main issue is Providence’s failure to bargain in good faith over safe staffing conditions. Since 2021 staffing levels have deteriorated with 600 nurses leaving the hospital, and Providence failing to attract new staff to replace them. This is a crisis that has put patients and nurses at risk as quality patient care eroded. Providence has so far refused to listen to the nurse-led bargaining committee to fix this problem.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 at 6 a.m. 1,300 nurses will be going on strike and forming picket lines at both the Colby and Pacific locations of PRMCE. If you are one of the nurses who will be on strike, stay up to date with the latest info on our Strike page. If you are a UFCW 3000 member who works at another employer you can pledge your support here, RSVP to our Candlelight Vigil, or just show up at either PRMCE location to join the picket (coffee and doughnuts are always a plus on a picket line)!

UFCW Member Stories: Juan Stout, Providence Everett Nurse & Activist

Juan Stout

Juan Stout has been a nurse for 15 years and has worked all of them at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett (PRMCE) at the Colby location. As of this writing, November 6, 2023, PRMCE registered nurses are on the 3rd day of a 10-day countdown to an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike. At 6 a.m. on November 14th, nurses will form picket lines at both the Colby and Pacific Avenue campuses of PRMCE to begin their 5-day strike.

Juan has served on four union negotiating committees, including this one. The central issue in these PRMCE contract negotiations is the staffing crisis that began during the pandemic and has worsened since then. Nurses in some departments at the hospital are working under a nearly impossible patient ratio of 6 or 8 patients to just 1 nurse. Juan and the bargaining committee have shown management at Providence that this is unsustainable and has to change.

“Patients and their families have come to us about the quality of care eroding at Prov Everett. This is a problem that must be fixed! But Providence Everett refuses to invest in a contract that will help recruit and retain nurses and other core staff .”

Juan and his coworkers know that this fight affects everyone who lives in and around Everett. They are asking for everyone’s support during the upcoming ULP strike, which unfortunately seems inevitable because Providence has refused to bargain during the 10-day waiting period. Juan and the other PRMCE nurses are prepared and ready to fight for patient safety, and they need our help. You can pledge your support online at our community support page. Juan also asks people to “reach out to hospital management and share their frustration with the poor staffing and sub-standard care they received.”

Juan comes from a family that has always been leaders in their community. He grew up in Lexington Kentucky where Juan’s father was the first African American to head a high school sports athletic association. Juan recently traveled back to Kentucky to accept a posthumous award on behalf of his father when he was inducted into the Lexington African American Hall of Fame.

Juan moved from Lexington when he was 24 to South Carolina and was a teacher for 15 years. Eventually, Juan went back to school to get his nursing degree. He has been a shop steward for 12 years and serves on the UFCW 3000 Executive Board. He loves educating his coworkers about their rights under the union contract and getting them to take action to improve their working conditions and the care that patients receive. He also has his own photography business on the side, “a wonderful hobby that has become a side hustle.”

He continues to educate and organize his coworkers for the strike and whatever it takes to get a fair contract and a better Providence Regional Medical Center for everyone.