A united UFCW Local 555 committee was back at the bargaining table with Fred Meyer on Wednesday, June 16. Non-food members from all across the jurisdiction gathered in Portland to send a message that regardless of where they live and work they all deserve the same benefits.

Breakroom Flyer

May 28, 2010

Early Friday morning, after a three-and-a-half day marathon bargaining session, Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions reached a tentative agreement on a new, two-year National Agreement.  During negotiations, the parties made progress toward improving affordability, service and quality for health plan members and being the best place to work. The unique Labor Management Partnership – the most enduring, largest, and most successful of its kind in any industry – puts industry-leading performance improvement tools into the hands of empowered workers, organized into teams, fueling constant performance improvement.

The tentative agreement provides for two annual 3% across-the-board wage increases, maintenance of the current benefit package, an enhanced sick leave cash-out option, stable funding for workforce development trust funds, and strengthening the Labor Management Partnership, the watershed 13-year old agreement under which the parties have successfully negotiated three national union contracts using interest-based negotiating.  A strategy to improve quality outcomes, unit based teams were reaffirmed as part of the operating model of Kaiser Permanente.

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Fred Meyer Non-Food workers deserve respect, fair wages and hours, a protected health plan, and a secure pension. For the first time, we are fighting for this standing shoulder to shoulder as Fred Meyer Non-Food workers from Albany, Coos Bay, Corvallis, Longview, Newberg, Portland, Salem, and The Dalles.

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With rising temperatures and increased consumer demand, grocery stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, and the warehouses that supply them are moving and selling ever-increasing volumes of bottled water. When palletized, these products can pose a significant risks to workers in our industry as a recent deadly tragedy illustrates.

In mid-March, a Kroger employee working in the back room of a store in Franklin, Ind. was crushed by falling pallets of water. Five days after the accident, the employee died. The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigated the accident and fined Kroger $17,000 for unsafe working conditions. This tragic incident and others like it are preventable – especially if UFCW members and locals take action for safety today.

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