On February 17th through February 21st, your Bargaining Committee held its second bargaining session.
Your Bargaining Committee made many more proposals throughout the week including standardization of language throughout the jurisdiction and improvements to: vacations, holidays, jury duty, required apparel including laundering, grievance procedures, bereavement leave, pension plan, weekly guarantee of hours, leaves of absence, and sick pay. We ended the session by proposing wage increases that allow us to live in the communities we serve.
Albertsons representatives’ initial proposal included takeaways like removing 8-hour rest between shifts, because it is not needed, as well as proposals to create two-tiered benefits that would make future hires receive less. We will not trade away our future members’ rights. We will all stand together in solidarity to fight for our current and future members!
Albertsons representatives also responded to our initial proposals by making it very clear they do not see a need for many of the changes in our proposals and claiming that the contracts are not broken in Idaho, Wyoming, and Ontario, and that workers don’t have the same needs as our union brothers and sisters in Oregon and Washington.
Grocery workers around the country are demanding better wages in order to be able to live and take care of their families and communities. We are no different. Idaho, Wyoming, and Ontario will not be left behind.
Your Union Bargaining Committee is leaving the bargaining table feeling disrespected and insulted by a company representative’s lack of interest in addressing our concerns.
The message was loud and clear that Idaho, Wyoming, and Ontario contracts are fine the way they are. The insinuation that Idaho, Wyoming, and Ontario deserve less is unacceptable! Albertsons claimed at the bargaining table that they are loyal to their current employees, we are calling on them to prove it by not leaving Idaho, Wyoming, and Ontario behind.
We expect a counter to our wage proposal at our next bargaining session scheduled on February 27th & 28th. We will update you at the end of the next session.
We are committed to doing what it takes to get a contract that will allow current workers to take care of their families as well as recruit and retain future workers needed to care for the communities we serve.
If you have not signed up to be an active Union member, please contact your Union Representative and join with us to fight for better lives for all. Together we win!