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Collective Bargaining, Economic Justice, Health Care, Kroger, Retail Food, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

UFCW Local 455 Kroger Members Ratify New Three-Year Contract

May 16, 2013

Last week, UFCW Local 455 Kroger clerks and meat cutters ratified a new three-year contract that improves healthcare benefits, increases wages, and preserves pensions. The new contract covers more than 13,000 Kroger clerk and meat workers, including part-time workers, in the Houston area.

Kroger workers from UFCW Local 455 attend a meeting regarding their new contract that raises wages, improves benefits, and preserves pensions.

Kroger workers from UFCW Local 455 attend a meeting regarding their new contract that raises wages, improves benefits, and
preserves pensions.

“The wage improvements are great,” said Kroger associate Lenda Cadoree. “These hard working members truly deserve it and the other wage increases assure the company will be able to hire and retain quality employees in the future. All the employees I have discussed our new contract with have been extremely pleased with what we have accomplished together in our union.”

The contract sets a high bar for negotiations in the grocery industry and will help pave the way for other workers who are members of UFCW Locals 540, 1000, 1996, and 2008.

Economic Justice, Kroger, Politics, Retail Food, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

Standing for Secure Retirements

Mar 06, 2013

These members at Kroger have secure pension plans.

Millions of UFCW members and retirees have earned the right to real retirement through years of dedicated service to some of the globe’s largest and most successful companies – and now they’re standing up to protect their retirements.

We all watched as the global financial crisis hit retirement savings for workers worldwide hard. It put many pension and retirement plans in precarious positions. Since then, the UFCW has been seeking new ways to protect the pensions of all American workers. That’s why the UFCW has backed the Partnership for Multiemployer Retirement Security’s plan called Solutions, Not Bailouts, and we carried that message to Capitol Hill yesterday morning at a hearing convened by the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee chaired by Rep. David Roe (R-Tenn.) with ranking member Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.).   This bipartisan attention to pension reform is an important way to secure the private retirement system.
 
In addition to many technical fixes that cost nothing, but add real protection to workers retirements, Solutions, Not Bailouts begins to explore more innovative solutions to some pension problems—including the one that the UFCW pioneered with the Kroger Company in 2011. Working together with one of the largest union employers in the country, we merged four troubled pension plans into one solid, fully-funded, plan with almost 200,000 participants.
 
As part of this transaction, Kroger contributed around a billion dollars to secure UFCW members’ retirements and pledged to secure the plan for at least the next ten years. The transaction made sense for Kroger because of the inexpensive lending rates available to company today. By making that inexpensive lending available to other companies that aren’t necessarily as large and creditworthy as Kroger, we can make millions more retirements secure and safe.
 
UFCW members know having each other’s back is a fundamental part of what we do in a labor union. We look out for our current members, our former members and our future members. With our allies in Congress, like the members of the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee, we’re working to find real solutions to retirements that have been undercut by irresponsible, and sometimes criminal, behavior on Wall Street. Real working Americans depend on these retirement funds and their investments must be protected.  Together, we’re working every day to make sure the voice of working America is heard over the din of big business lobbyists on Capitol Hill.

2012 Presidential Election, Kroger, Politics, Retail Food, UFCW Stewards

A Star Steward

Sep 11, 2012 (0) Comments

Penny Gibson

Penny Gibson is a meat-cutter at Kroger, a union member, a political activist, and definitely a star steward for UFCW Local 876.

One of the great things Penny is doing to help her coworkers and her community is helping people to register for this year’s election.  With the help of her local union’s Voter Registration Toolkit, Penny working hard to make sure all her coworkers, friends, and neighbors, have a voice in November.

Penny has also dedicated her time and energy to the Protect Our Jobs effort, a drive to put a measure on the November ballot allowing voters to decide on a proposal to add the right to collective bargaining to the Michigan constitution. She secured over 50 signatures, the most of any Local 876 steward. With collective bargaining under attack in so many states across the country, Michigan has a chance to lead the charge for the basic freedoms of speech and association that collective bargaining represents.

Penny says she’s dedicated herself to protecting collective bargaining in part because “many young workers do not realize it is their union contract that provided that raise, that $3 prescription refill, and that week-long paid vacation up north. It is not the company that provided these benefits, it was the union who negotiated these on our behalf.”

With Penny on the case, those young workers will be activists in no time! UFCW member activists and stewards keep their union running. To learn more about how to get involved with your local union, email submissions@ufcw.org or send us a message on Facebook.