Jennifer Christensen: ‘We really are dedicated, as a union, to everyone doing better’

August 24, 2021 by

UFCW Local 1189 President Jennifer Christensen spoke at a Capitol press conference in 2016.

Jennifer Christensen’s career with the United Food and Commercial Workers started over 30 years ago as a part-time deli worker at Cub Foods, and it will end this month, when she retires as president of South St. Paul- and Duluth-based UFCW Local 1189.

She was the first woman to serve as president of the 10,000-member local, which represents workers in retail stores, nursing homes, hospitals, food processing plants, the state’s medical cannabis industry and beyond.

But in this interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, Christensen said she preferred to focus not on “the girl thing,” but on the work that has made Local 1189 a successful, fighting union with a bright future.

UA: What drove your interest in union leadership?

JC: When I went to work in the Cottage Grove deli part time, I set out in my mind to get the store director’s job. Then I got a full-time promotion working seafood when the Apple Valley store opened, and SuperValu paid for me to finish my degree. And I had for some time been trying to be a union meatcutter – I wanted to be a carpenter when I was younger, and being a meatcutter was almost like being a carpenter, only you took things apart rather than putting them together – and I finally got a job as a meatcutter apprentice when they opened the Midway store…

But before I became a meatcutter, I was on the negotiating committee of a different local in 1995… After that experience, I decided right then and there that if I ever got a chance to run a local, I would never run it that way!

UA: Eventually you got your chance, getting elected secretary-treasurer in 2003 and president in 2016. Did you stay true to that approach?

JC: I strongly believe that workers will always make the right decision for themselves, their families and even their employer – if they’re given true and honest information. Workers are smart, and regardless of how long they’ve been there or what wage they make, you need to respect their intelligence. It’s their workplace. It’s their union. That’s been the driving factor for me, taken from those experiences I had along the way.

UA: What have you learned about leadership?

JC: To purposefully take time to thank people and appreciate people and have conversations and build solidarity. Sometimes we keep calling on the same people, and we’re wearing people out. We need to find the joy in solidarity. The struggle is long. Stop and have a drink of water. Have a beer. And then go on.

UA: Local 1189 represents such a diverse group. How would you characterize your local’s identity?

JC: I find that the more we learn about each other and our neighbors, the stronger we are. Because we are a diverse local, we have in our culture that we support people in other industries. It’s not all about us! We are really dedicated, as a union, to everyone doing better.

Local 1189 and President Jennifer Christensen hosted a food giveaway in South St. Paul earlier this year.

UA: How has Local 1189 navigated COVID?

JC: The vast majority of our members are essential. Our members had to face the pandemic every day, head on. And we’re all fortunate that they are professionals and committed to what they do, so they did show up every day. They stayed. They worked. People adjusted their lives in order to rise to the challenge, even if it was scary. They’re heroes.

It took and is taking a toll. But we as a union did not let them go through that alone. We continued to come to work. We worked to make sure that the union representatives of essential workers were also essential, so that we could stand beside them, getting information out to people, making ourselves available, providing our members with masks or face shields…

UA: There was an outpouring of appreciation at the start of the pandemic for the essential work we too often take for granted. Do you think that will last?

JC: We all want to get back to normal, and some of normalcy is the ability to take things for granted like going to the grocery store and finding food and toilet paper. Our folks, we’ve always known what an integral part of the community they are. Everyone else found out, and I think from time to time we’ll all kind of remember still.

UA: What are you going to miss in retirement? And what are you looking forward to?

JC: I’ll miss being able to give people answers, giving people the right information. I will miss my staff and friends in the labor community. I’ll miss seeing the accomplishments we make as unions and being part of it, watching people grow in their power.

I’m going to do some pottery. I don’t know that I look forward to weeding my garden, but my garden might be looking forward to that.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , ,

Nationwide campaign to fight cancer launches at Twin Cities union grocers

March 16, 2018 by

Union retail workers are teaming up with area grocers and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society this month to fight cancer, forging a bond they hope will catch on nationwide.

The Labor Against Cancer campaign will encourage customers at several union grocery stores to donate $1 or more at checkout, with proceeds supporting cancer research and copay support. The campaign runs from St. Patrick’s Day through March 31.

The United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents retail workers nationwide, has a 36-year relationship with the LLS, and union members have raised over $86 million for the organization over that time.

But the new campaign, piloted by UFCW locals 1189 and 653, brings union employers and their customers into the fold, with hopes of expanding the fundraising drive’s public profile – and improving its results.

“What we realized is that we had a huge opportunity to engage not only our union friends but their employers, their retailers to be a part of a movement to end blood cancer,” Kay Skonieczny, a vice president at LLS, said. “UFCW is powering our movement, and we’re inviting unions of all types to join us.”

UFCW Local 1189 President Jennifer Christensen and member Dean Nelson of South St. Paul join a Labor Against Cancer kickoff event.

Jennifer Christensen, president of St. Paul-based UFCW Local 1189, credited participating employers for “taking the big leap to work with us” on the campaign.

Blood cancer survivors from both local unions attended a campaign kickoff event at the LLS chapter’s Minneapolis offices Thursday. Dean Nelson, a meat cutter in the Midway Cub Foods, said his recovery from chronic myeloid leukemia diagnosis was “a walk in the park” thanks to lifesaving medication discovered as a result of LLS-funded research.

And the medication was affordable, Nelson added, because of his union-negotiated health insurance. He pays $15 per paycheck toward premiums and a $600 copay on medication that costs $176,000 per year.

“Collective bargaining is why I am where I am today,” Nelson said. “If I worked for Target, if I worked for Wal-Mart, they would have dumped me into public assistance.”

Raising awareness of union retailers, Christensen said, is an added bonus of the Labor Against Cancer campaign. “I think it’s important that we set our union employers apart from some of the competition, in the way that they support the folks that work there,” she said.

Participating retailers in the East Metro include Cub Foods, Jerry’s, Lunds and Byerlys, and Oxendales. [Click for participating sites in the East Metro and West Metro.]

“You’re going to hear a lot about Labor Against Cancer in the future,” Skonieczny said. “You can all know that it started right here in Minnesota.”

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

New worker center reaches out to poultry, packinghouse workers in Minnesota

June 12, 2017 by

Three state lawmakers – Reps. Rick Hansen (L), Tim Mahoney and Fue Lee (R) – open the new Hardman Avenue Workers Center at UFCW Local 1189’s hall.

The Hardman Avenue Workers Center, located at the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189 hall in South St. Paul, opened with a celebration and free citizenship workshops for immigrant workers last week.

The goal of the initiative, Local 1189 organizing director Abraham Wangnoo said, is to “start teaching people what their rights are,” particularly people working in the state’s poultry and packinghouse industries, where employers are “constantly finding new immigrant worker groups to exploit.”

Far too often for people in the U.S. on temporary work visas, Wangnoo added, the only source of information about their rights on the job is their boss.

“If we don’t educate them, if we don’t bring them in and try to help them understand their rights and what working union means, then we won’t be able to organize – and the quality of these jobs will be forever poor,” he said.

While poultry and packinghouse workers are a focus of the Hardman Avenue Workers Center, its services – including pre-screening of immigration applications and documents, legal assistance and citizenship test flashcards – are available to workers in any industry.

“This is only the beginning,” Local 1189 President Jennifer Christensen said. “We have great things to come for the worker center. We have great hope for helping our immigrant community obtain citizenship, stopping wage theft, helping poultry workers get justice throughout Minnesota and helping retail workers rise to the wages they deserve.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Medical cannabis workers’ new contract reflects industry growth

January 17, 2017 by

ufcw1189merge2smallWorkers at Minnesota Medical Solutions, one of two companies authorized by the state to produce medical cannabis, voted unanimously Jan. 12 to ratify a new union contract that reflects – and anticipates – growth in the industry.

The three-year pact includes annual wage increases, provides premium pay for lead positions and time spent training other workers, and expands the unit’s wage scale to provide more entry-level opportunities. Workers also won more holidays and paid time off, reimbursements for mileage and travel time, and affordable health-insurance coverage.

“We are proud and appreciate being able to provide exceptional medical cannabis to our patients in Minnesota,” union steward Nathan Noel said.

The new contract currently covers 11 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, who work as pharmacy technicians, growers, packagers and security receptionists. The bargaining unit has grown since Local 1189 organized the company’s three workers (and negotiated a first contract) in February 2015, and it will expand soon to include two more workers, Local 1189 President Jennifer Christensen said.

“What is really important is the employer’s commitment to full-time, living-wage, union jobs,” Christensen said. “Part-time jobs do exist, but as business expands and hours become available, those jobs are transformed into full-time.

“Minnesota Medical Solutions is leading the way nationally, and it shows in the quality of products and services that our members provide for the people of Minnesota.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Lawmakers seek answers as Walmart strains local police time, municipal resources

December 15, 2016 by
Rep. John Lesch flips through a stack of incident reports he obtained from the City of St. Paul, stemming from calls for police service made by the Midway Walmart over a the course of one year.

Rep. John Lesch flips through a stack of incident reports he obtained from the City of St. Paul that stem from calls for police service made by the Midway Walmart over the course of one year.

State Rep. John Lesch, a prosecutor in St. Paul for 15 years, can recite the address from memory: 1450 University Avenue West.

That’s Walmart’s Midway location, and it is a magnet for shoplifting and other petty crime that, like several other Walmart stores in Minnesota and across the country, absorbs a disproportionate amount of attention from community police.

“They’re the problem child of Minnesota retailers, and they’re costing taxpayers,” Lesch said.

The worker-led group Making Change at Walmart rolled out a campaign yesterday to hold the nation’s largest retailer accountable for the strain its stores put on local resources. With support from the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the organization unveiled a PSA highlighting high crime rates at the St. Paul store, set to air on local TV networks.

The PSA notes two Twin Cities Walmart locations – St. Paul and Brooklyn Park – average three calls for police service per day. “Our police should protect us and not your profits,” the PSA tells Walmart.

UFCW Local 1189 represents workers at Cub, Rainbow Foods and other local retailers, many of which contract with private security firms. By relying instead on local police for security, Walmart undercuts those competitors – and passes the cost onto taxpayers.

“Walmart needs to step up,” Rep. Mike Nelson, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said. “They should not be sponging off the communities in which they do business.”

UFCW Local 1189 President Jennifer Christensen says Walmart's refusal to hire private security puts retail workers at risk.

UFCW Local 1189 President Jennifer Christensen says Walmart’s refusal to hire private security puts retail workers at risk.

With over $14 billion in profits last year, Walmart can afford to address security issues in its stores – for the benefit of the communities it serves and its own workers, Local 1189 President Jennifer Christensen said.

“Walmart’s failure to maintain a trained, visible, qualified store-security workforce at their own expense is putting workers at risk,” she said. Not only are workers at risk on the job, but when they go home to their neighborhoods, where, Christensen said, “we don’t have patrol cars because they’re busy doing Walmart’s work for them.”

Municipalities lack the resources necessary to push back against Walmart’s disproportionate use of their resources, Lesch said. That’s why he plans to seek a legislative hearing on potential solutions to the issue next session.

Lesch anticipates other state lawmakers will share his interest in ensuring Local Government Aid appropriated by the state to municipalities provides services equitably for residents and businesses in those communities – something he’s long known isn’t happening at 1450 University Avenue West in St. Paul.

“We want Walmart to lower the numbers they have of demands on police services in the state of Minnesota, so that they’re a fair player in the use of taxpayer services,” Lesch said.

Filed Under: Community, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Insurance plan trustee advises members ‘go elsewhere for care’ during Allina strike

September 22, 2016 by
web.AllinaStrikeDay1-5

Nurses picket outside United Hospital in St. Paul, one of five Allina Health facilities where members of MNA have been on strike since Labor Day.

The president of a major Minnesota union sent a letter this week to members enrolled in its health insurance plans urging them to “go elsewhere for health care” during the Allina strike.

Jennifer Christensen, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, cited concerns about “quality control” and patient safety at five Allina Health facilities in the Twin Cities where members of the Minnesota Nurses Association have been on strike since Sept. 5: Abbott Northwestern, Mercy, United and Unity hospitals and Phillips Eye Institute.

[Click here to view the full letter.]

As it did during nurses’ seven-day strike in June, Allina has contracted replacement nurses from across the country to fill in for the 4,700 union members who regularly staff its facilities. The changeover was rocky in June, prompting patients and hospital staff to file about 40 complaints with state regulators, according to MNA.

Christensen, who serves as a trustee of two multi-employer health insurance plans that cover 7,000 people, questioned whether replacement nurses could uphold the high standards set by union nurses, or whether Allina’s facilities have “become so overwhelmed with so many new replacement nurses that quality care is no longer guaranteed.”

Local 1189 leaders say they plan to invite other unions that sponsor Taft Hartley plans to join them in advising members to consider alternatives to Allina until the provider gets serious about negotiating with its nurses.

Filed Under: Community, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

East Metro grocery workers reject ‘final offer,’ urge continued negotiations

June 17, 2016 by

ufcw1189merge2smallIn a nearly unanimous vote yesterday, East Metro grocery workers rejected a hastily crafted “final offer” from their employers.

About 3,700 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189 began contract negotiations in late February with several St. Paul-area retail grocers, including Cub Foods, Rainbow, Jerry’s Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski’s Markets, Festival Foods, Knowlan’s and County Market.

But after the two sides failed to reach an agreement in bargaining June 6, the employers issued their “final offer” – a power play that forced yesterday’s up-or-down vote.

More than 96 percent of voting members followed their 27-member negotiating committee’s recommendation to reject the employers’ proposal, citing its inadequate wage increases, insufficient funding for workers’ health insurance plan and failure to address “outside agents” doing union members’ work.

“Our folks in the stores have earned the right to receive a good wage increase,” Local 1189 Secretary-Treasurer Jennifer Christensen said. “They deserve to have the comfort of knowing their health care plan will have enough money to pay their medical bills. And they believe the notion of staffing the stores with enough actual store employees to get the work done and meet the needs of their customers is only common sense.”

All parties, Christensen added, would have been better off staying at the table.

“Our members voted ‘no’ because they care about their customers and their co-workers,” she said. “It is time now for the union employers to get back to the table and give their workers the offer they deserve.”

Most of the contracts covered in the talks expired around April 1, but employers have agreed to operate under an extension of the previous agreement.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , ,

UFCW local honors Seaquist during last meeting as president

May 19, 2016 by
Don Seaquist oversees his last meeting as UFCW Local 1189 president, as Secretary-Treasurer Jennifer Christensen and Recording Secretary Jim Gleb look on.

Don Seaquist oversees his last meeting as UFCW Local 1189 president, as Secretary-Treasurer Jennifer Christensen and Recording Secretary Jim Gleb look on.

Don Seaquist presided over his last meeting as United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189’s top officer last night. But Seaquist, who’s served as president of the local since 2003, did not go quietly into retirement.

After thanking Local 1189’s members and staff, as well as his family members in attendance, Seaquist led his favorite chant one last time: “Tell me what democracy looks like? This is what democracy looks like!”

“It’s one I learned outside the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, with 300,000 of my closest friends,” Seaquist said.

Seaquist worked 23 years as a meat-cutter before going to work for St. Paul-based UFCW Local 789 as a union representative in 1994. Elected secretary-treasurer in 2001, Seaquist succeeded Bill Pearson as president two years later.

In 2010, Seaquist helped guide a merger with the Duluth-based UFCW local, out of which Local 1189 was born.

Members, staff and even a representative of Supervalu, one of Local 1189’s employers, offered thanks and well-wishes to Seaquist during his final meeting. They praised his fairness, candor and willingness to embrace change, from using new technology like social media to identifying the growth potential of medical cannabis, an industry in which workers are represented locally by the UFCW.

“We tried to dare to be different,” Seaquist said. “You can’t be afraid of change.”

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , ,

Workers OK first contract, making Wedge first union co-op in Minnesota

April 6, 2016 by
Members of UFCW Local 1189's bargaining committee at the Wedge.

Members of UFCW Local 1189’s bargaining committee at the Wedge.

Workers at the Wedge voted Tuesday to ratify their first union contract, making the Minneapolis grocer the state’s first unionized co-op.

Wedge Community Co-op workers voted last November to join United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, seeking higher wages, an equitable process for dealing with management and a voice in decisions that affect the co-op’s culture and working environment.

In negotiations described by Local 1189 as “fairly smooth,” Wedge workers made real progress on those issues.

Organizing Director Abraham Wangnoo said the new contract includes raises, contract language to prevent favoritism and elimination of a cap on workers’ wages. And having a collective voice, he added, provides workers with a “long-term solution in keeping the core co-op values in tact as the industry adopts a more corporate model to stay competitive in the natural retail food industry.”

Jennifer Christensen, Local 1189’s secretary-treasurer, helped negotiate the agreement; she credited the Wedge for coming to the table with a genuine interest in settling a fair contract.

“The Wedge’s willingness to honor their workers’ desire to have a union and a fair union contract sets them apart from all other co-ops in the state,” Christensen said. “Sustainability is not just about the food we eat, but also the workers who provide that food to us.

“Unlike Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and their ilk, who masquerade as conscientious employers, the Wedge is the real deal, and the union contract proves it.  A local, ethical, responsible employer, the Wedge and its Union workers deserve your support.”

The new contract covers about 140 in-store workers; 76 percent of those casting ballots voted to approve the agreement.

Local 1189 also represents workers at the Wedge’s warehouse, Co-op Partners Warehouse (CPW), who organized in 2012 and, by negotiating a neutrality agreement with their employer, paved the way for retail workers to follow suit last November.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , ,