Where: Upstairs office above the store. It's in Apartment 32. The store is at 1600 East Madison Street in Capitol Hill. Ask at Info Central, the store's front desk, if you'd like help getting to Apartment 32.
Why: 70 grocery workers at Central Co-op are members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21. Our contract expired on November 1, 2010. We are now into our sixth month of contract negotiations with management. We are asking for members of the Co-op as well as any supporters of workers rights and the labor movement to join us in solidarity. We need your support to let management know that we deserve a fair contract now!
History: Since the contract expired we have only had four negotiating sessions in almost six months. Most of the delay is due to management. At the fifth session on March 2, management refused to continue negotiations and presented us with a "last, best, and final" offer. On March 21, by a vote of 56 to zero, the workers unanimously voted down management's proposal. Prior to the March 2 session, both sides had tentatively agreed to four new negotiating sessions in March. But once management presented their "last, best, and final" offer, those sessions were canceled.
Due to management stalling, we still don't have any new negotiation dates set up. We are being told now the earliest we'd return to negotiations would be some time in May. We will have lost two months of time to negotiate because of management's "last, best, and final" offer and subsequent stalling. The workers have been very patient so far. But everyone's patience is growing thinner.
Our store is making record sales and is primed to be debt free later this year. Three years ago management agreed to a contract that gave a pay increase to the Journey level workers of just under $1 an hour for each year of a three year contract, and also gave non-Journey workers an average of .50 cents for each year. Yet this time around their offer is only .25 cents an hour for all staff. Their proposal would allow future health care costs to be forced onto the workers. It doesn't increase Paid Time Off benefits. And it continues a current practice of using non-union substitute workers for indefinite periods of time.
Board of Trustees meeting: The whole Board meets once a month, on every second Tuesday. We ask for your support in letting them know that Co-op members and the community support the workers' contract demands.
The Co-op should set the industry standard for pay and benefits so it can be a shining example for businesses all over Seattle for how workers in our city are treated.
