PCC grocery workers ratify industry-leading contract

The following is from UFCW 3000:

SEATTLE (Feb. 8, 2024) — After nearly a year of hard negotiations and a series of collective actions, workers at PCC held a day of voting Tuesday at all PCC locations on a new contract proposal. It was announced late Tuesday night that PCC workers at every store location, all members of UFCW 3000, had voted overwhelmingly to approve the new two-year agreement.

The new contract will make PCC members the highest-paid grocery store and meat workers in the area, improve the safety of stores, and maintain employees’ healthcare benefits. In addition, significant gains were made to: increase union members’ voices in the operation of PCC; secure a groundbreaking agreement and process to have workers on the board of directors; and begin discussion with the company around profit sharing.

Less than two weeks prior, workers at PCC had voted to reject management’s most recent offer and authorize a strike. That same day, Jan. 26, the prior contract’s extension period expired and if negotiations with the employer had not made the necessary progress late last week, a strike could have been called.

Fortunately, a much better contract proposal was reached between the union-member bargaining team and PCC. This new agreement was only able to be achieved after nearly a year of contract negotiations, and actions by workers to expose the problems they were attempting to get addressed.

Reactions from some of the bargaining team members who helped lead the contract negotiations included:

“My coworkers and fellow union members are happy with our union contract, and we won a groundbreaking contract. There were outside agitators who tried to divide us, but we stood together. Can’t wait two years from now to bargain again. We must build off every contract,” said Yasab Pfister, PIC, PCC Burien.

“For the first time ever, we won wage escalators to ensure our lowest wage workers stay above the minimum wage.  We fought hard for helper clerks and won wage increases for our lowest paid deli workers. We did this by standing together and fighting together,” said Atsuko Koseki, Deli, PCC Edmonds.

“Healthcare was a top priority and we fought back PCC takeaways. We also reduced our wage scales and won a path for permanent worker representation on the PCC Board of directors. Our co-workers and customers stood with us. And we won,” said Keith Allery, Deli, PCC Green Lake Village.

“Perseverance to prosperity, I am grateful for the largest pay raise in PCC history,” said Allison Smith, Meat Cutter, PCC Issaquah.

UFCW 3000 is more than 50,000 union workers in grocery stores, health care, retail, food processing, cannabis and other industries in Washington, northeastern Oregon and northern Idaho. Learn more at ufcw3000.org.

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