Wedge keeps shareholders in the dark as workers near union vote

October 30, 2015 by

ufcw1189merge2smallWorkers at the Wedge Co-Op in Minneapolis are poised to vote in an organizing election next month. Co-Op Partners Warehouse workers reached a tentative agreement with the Wedge earlier this month.

But that might come as news to the co-op’s shareholders, who were left in the dark regarding the strides workers are taking toward a greater voice on the job during the co-op’s annual meeting Oct. 22, union representatives said.

“It’s a little disappointing,” UFCW Local 1189’s Abraham Wangnoo said. “A lot of the workers feel the shareholders hold a lot of power, but they’re being kept in the dark when it comes to the things going on with the workforce.”

Now workers are left wondering whether the Wedge might balk at the terms of a neutrality agreement reached during warehouse workers’ organizing drive with the United Food and Commercial Workers four-plus years ago. The agreement covers all of the Wedge’s buildings, and it prevents pro-union workers from picketing or calling for boycotts as long as the Wedge does not interfere in the organizing campaign.

But the agreement hasn’t kept the Wedge from attempting to influence the organizing process, Wangnoo said. After workers approached management in June to discuss the neutrality agreement, management “immediately gave anybody who was making under $11 a raise,” he said. “All these new people who were hired at $10 got a raise just like that.”

Certainly, it was good for workers, but it was also a textbook maneuver used by employers looking to snuff out the spark of collective action. Wangnoo called it the first in a string of “tactics to convince people not to form a union” and “particularly disappointing coming from this employer, given what they’re supposedly about.”

Wedge employees have organized around a variety of issues, including a perceived rise in “corporate culture” at the co-op, a lack of equal opportunity and favoritism among management. They are hopeful, Wagnoo added, that gaining a collective voice will be a step toward creating a “sustainable system of jobs and food” that is consistent with the co-op’s values-driven mission.

The National Labor Relations Board will conduct the organizing election Nov. 16.

Workers at the Wedge’s Co-Op Partners Warehouse, meanwhile, overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year agreement Wednesday. The contract guarantees annual wage increases for all employees and improves language regarding sick leave, the union reported.

It is warehouse workers’ second contract since voting to join UFCW Local 1189 in 2012.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , ,

Grocery union launches campaign to hold Hy-Vee accountable for ‘good jobs’

October 5, 2015 by
These signs are popping up around the Twin Cities as part of a joint campaign between UFCW locals based in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

These signs are popping up in lawns across the Twin Cities as part of a joint campaign run by UFCW locals based in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

As Hy-Vee moves into the Twin Cities market, union grocery workers are rolling out a campaign to hold the supermarket chain to local standards for “good jobs.”

That means high wages, guaranteed schedules, affordable health care and retirement plans – and the security of a union contract.

“The ability to negotiate guaranteed wage increases, hours of work and benefits allow our members to take care of their families and strengthen our communities,” UFCW Local 1189 Secretary-Treasurer Jennifer Christensen said. “We are committed to making all retail grocery jobs really good jobs, meaning life-sustaining ones.”

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers staff grocery chains across the Twin Cities, including Cub Foods, Kowalski’s, Festival, Rainbow and Lunds and Byerly’s. These union shops represent “an oasis in the world of low-wage retail,” Christensen said.

Indeed, annual raises for members of Local 1189 who work in East Metro grocery stores take effect today, with part-time workers seeing a 45-cent hourly increase, keeping them on track to reach $14.90 per hour, according to the union. Full-time grocery clerks and journeyman meat cutters will see 50-cent raises, with senior clerks moving to $23.58 and cutters to $25.10.

Christensen said Local 1189 and Minneapolis-based UFCW Local 653 plan to reach out to Hy-Vee workers looking to organize for comparable wages and benefits.

But the chain, which so far has opened stores in New Hope and Oakdale, presents a unique challenge for union organizers. As an ESOP, Hy-Vee grants workers small shares in the company’s ownership structure as part of their compensation.

Of course, owning a few shares of stock is no guarantee of good wages, fair schedules or security at work. ESOP workers are able to organize for a voice on the job – a union – just like any other grocery store employee.

To drive home that message – and to warn Hy-Vee against interfering with workers’ efforts to join a union – the UFCW locals are teaming up on a “Union Jobs Are Good Jobs” campaign. Supporters are sending postcards to Hy-Vee management and workers, and lawn signs are popping up in neighborhoods across the Metro.

Click here to sign a petition in support of the “Union Jobs Are Good Jobs” campaign.

Click here to learn more about hosting a lawn sign.

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

Good Luck: WI health care workers form union on same day Walker signs Right to Work

March 10, 2015 by
Health care workers celebrate their organizing win at United Pioneer Home in Luck, Wis.

Health care workers celebrate their organizing win at United Pioneer Home in Luck, Wis.

More bad news for working families came out of Wisconsin yesterday, when Gov. Scott Walker approved so-called “Right to Work” legislation. But there was good news, too.

Nursing home workers in the small town of Luck, Wis., about 70 miles northeast of the Twin Cities, voted to form a union in election results certified by the National Labor Relations Board yesterday.

As a result, 57 certified nursing assistants, dietary workers, housekeepers and laundry workers at United Pioneer Home now are represented by Local 1189 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, a union headquartered in St. Paul and Duluth.

The organizing drive began in January, after a handful of United Pioneer Home workers approached the union with concerns about insufficient staffing levels and workplace safety. Abraham Wangnoo, director of organizing for Local 1189, said workers reported being afraid to approach management with their concerns and were frustrated with the lack of respect supervisors showed them on the job. One worker who spoke up to management, he said, was dismissed as “just a maid.”

“People wanted a voice,” Wangnoo said. “When they had concerns, they wanted to be heard. This was a way they thought they could use one voice to speak about issues that affect their jobs and the (nursing home) residents’ lives.”

The organizing drive progressed quickly, and workers voted 25-14 in favor of union representation.

Now, United Pioneer Home becomes an early test of whether newly organized unions can survive in post-RTW Wisconsin. The new law allows workers to benefit from a collective bargaining agreement without paying for the cost of representation, making it illegal to collect fair-share fees from workers in an organized workplace who choose not to join the union.

When Local 1189 members and United Pioneer Home agree on a first contract, it will cover all 57 workers eligible to vote in the NLRB election, including those who voted against unionizing. All 57 will enjoy the benefits of the new contract, from grievance procedures and job security to safety protections and compensation increases.

But the cost of negotiating and servicing the new contract will fall entirely on the workers who choose to join the union and pay dues to Local 1189.

By gutting the resources unions rely on to represent workers, RTW generally undermines the appeal – and bargaining power – of organized labor in states that pass the law. But Wangnoo said Local 1189, which represents more than 650 workers in western Wisconsin, isn’t about to pull up stakes.

“We’re going to continue to do the best we can to be the best we can, so people really do see the value in what workers have done in organizing a union,” Wangnoo said. “We want them all to know that it pays to belong.”

That task becomes more difficult over time, as workers active in an organizing effort retire or take other jobs.

Wangnoo said Local 1189’s bargaining units in Wisconsin have elected union stewards who are dedicated to the kind of service and outreach work necessary to bring new members into the fold. Already, some workers who voted against the union at United Pioneer Home have expressed an interest in being involved in negotiations, he said.

“Our representation is what we’re going to count on for keeping the good, strong union density in these places that we need to maintain strong contracts,” he said. “I believe our record will speak for itself, and people will see the value in membership.”

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

Union sees growth potential in state’s medical cannabis industry

February 20, 2015 by

ufcw1189merge2smallWorkers at Minnesota Medical Solutions, one of two firms authorized by state regulators to manufacture and dispense medical cannabis, announced today they have unionized and ratified their first contract, all in the last week.

The state’s Bureau of Mediation Services on Tuesday authorized Local 1189 of the United Food and Commercial Workers – a St. Paul- and Duluth-based union representing workers in retail, health care and manufacturing – as the representative of Minnesota Medical Solutions’ eligible full- and part-time workers.

The union announced workers’ vote to ratify their new contract in a press release today.

The Minnesota Department of Health will begin enrolling patients with qualified medical conditions – outlined in legislation passed last year – into the medical cannabis registry program this spring. Registered patients may be able to purchase medical cannabis at eight distribution facilities across the state as early as July.

Bernie Hesse, Local 1189’s director of special projects, sees potential for growth for the medical cannabis industry in Minnesota. The UFCW, which represents thousands of medical cannabis workers in seven states and the District of Columbia, projects the industry will create one job for every 10 patients.

The Minnesota Medical Solutions bargaining unit “is a handful of workers to start,” Hesse said. “But it will grow.”

Meanwhile, Hesse said, Local 1189’s efforts to organize workers at the other licensed cannabis producer, Cottage Grove-based LeafLine Labs, continue.

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

Fundraiser for displaced food workers Sept. 8

August 18, 2014 by

ufcw1189merge2smallUnited Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189 will hold a fundraiser to benefit members who lost their jobs when two large employers, Dakota Premium and Rainbow Foods, closed earlier this summer.

The Fundraiser for Food Workers will run from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 8 at Local 1189’s union hall, located at 266 Hardman Ave. N. in South St. Paul. Union members, allies and their families are invited to attend.

Dakota Premium suspended production indefinitely at its South St. Paul packinghouse in July, displacing 275 UFCW members. Roundy’s Inc. sold off or closed all of its Rainbow properties in the Twin Cities in July as well, displacing 125 UFCW members in the East Metro.

Funds raised will provide emergency assistance for those workers and their families, administered by the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation’s AFL-CIO Community Services program. To contribute by mail, send a check made out to “LSRC” to Labor Studies Resource Center, 411 Main St., Room 202, St. Paul, MN 55102.

Click here to download a flier for the fundraiser.

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

Lunds gives downtown St. Paul a full-service, union grocery store

May 23, 2014 by
UFCW Local 1189 members Diane Kramer (L) and Jillian Roemer ring up the first two customers on Lunds' first day open for business downtown St. Paul.

UFCW Local 1189 members Diane Kramer (L) and Jillian Roemer ring up the first two customers on Lunds’ first day open for business downtown St. Paul.

Good news: Downtown St. Paul finally has the full-service grocery store residents have been clamoring for. Even better news: It’s a union shop.

After years of planning and waiting, Lunds opened a 27,000-square-foot store on the ground floor of the Penfield Apartments at 10th and Robert streets May 15. The store’s 80 workers are members of Local 1189 of the United Food and Commercial Workers.

At the store’s grand-opening celebration May 15, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman touted the grocer’s arrival as more evidence that St. Paul’s downtown area is thriving.

“To be a full community, you absolutely have to have a full-service grocery store,” Coleman said. “This is a gigantic leap forward for the City of St. Paul.”

Bartara Gonzales serves a customer at the deli inside Lunds' downtown location.

Bartara Gonzales serves a customer at the deli inside Lunds’ downtown location.

St. Paul has added 1,100 new housing units downtown in the last year, Coleman noted. A new microbrewery, a new minor-league ballpark and, thanks to funding from the state bonding bill, a renovated Palace Theater soon will open just blocks away from Lunds.

Lund Food Holdings CEO Tres Lund acknowledged the “renewed vitality taking place downtown St. Paul” was a factor in the company’s decision to expand into the district.

“One thing the community has lacked, until now, is a full‐service grocery store,” Lund said. “Our store team of nearly 80 employees is eager to provide the community with this much‐needed amenity. Whether you live or work in and around the downtown area, we look forward to becoming your new neighbor.”

A ‘full-service’ grocer

Lunds and Bylerly’s, which Lund Food Holdings acquired in 1997, have 25 retail locations across the Twin Cities area. The chain, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, has established a reputation for upscale, full-service operations.

The downtown St. Paul Lunds figures to become a popular lunch destination among people working in the area, and the store has a café seating area to accommodate the lunch rush.

Deli workers celebrate the store's grand opening (L to R): Bartara Gonzales, Alaina Moseng and Kristina Kong.

Deli workers celebrate the store’s grand opening (L to R): Bartara Gonzales, Alaina Moseng and Kristina Kong.

The store’s deli features a salad bar, sandwiches, soups and other hot foods. There’s also sushi, prepared in the store daily, and a Big Bowl Chinese Express counter.

Other services and offerings include cake decorating at Lunds’ bakery, hundreds of specialty cheeses from around the world, the largest olive and antipasti bar in any Lunds or Byerly’s, and free knife sharpening from the store’s meat department.

Bachman’s Floral, Caribou Coffee and St. Croix Cleaners dry cleaning operate counters inside Lunds, providing additional convenience for shoppers.

Access to the store is equally convenient, with 95 stalls in an attached parking ramp and, beginning June 14, a Green Line light-rail stop just one block away.

Penfield pays off

The Penfield, which houses Lunds, is built on the former site of the St. Paul Public Safety Building, the façade of which has been absorbed into the new structure.

The 80 or so members of UFCW Local 1189 who staff Lunds are the latest in a string of union members who have found employment as a result of The Penfield development. But there was a time when many wondered if The Penfield would get off the ground at all.

After the housing market collapsed with the Great Recession, the development stalled, as did Lunds’ plans to open in the downtown market. Financing from the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, which invests union pension capital into union-built construction projects, helped revive the project.

“When I took office in 2006, the Penfield project was one of our No. 1 priorities. We knew it would help the rest of the city develop,” Coleman said. “The challenge was, as the economy collapsed, the resources that we needed [for] the project were scarcer and scarcer. It was the Housing Investment Trust that allowed us the resources we needed to get this project in the ground and get people to work building it.”

Now that investment is putting union members to work inside The Penfield as well.

web.lunds-outside

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

A stinging defeat on labor relations bill 75 years ago

April 3, 2014 by
web.archives-transitstrike

Transit workers ended their 44-day strike 10 years ago this month, after 72 percent of voting ATU Local 1005 members ratified a new contract with Metro Transit. Above: 6-year-old Nicholas Wagner attended his first union rally three days before the settlement.

The Minnesota Federation of Labor held an emergency special convention for the first time in its history April 3, 1939. On the agenda? How to defeat a labor-relations bill making its way through the Legislature that winter and considered by The Advocate to be “one of the most vicious anti-Labor bills ever introduced in the middle west.”

Known as the Vance-Myre bill, the measure reclassified some unfair labor practices as “unlawful acts,” making them misdemeanors punishable by up to 90 days in jail.

The bill’s opponents, including Rep. John Barrett, a member of St. Paul Steamfitters Local 455, called it an overreaction meant to “restrict the entire Labor movement for the overt acts of a few individuals or groups within the Labor movement.”

The measure passed on the final day of the legislative session, despite opposition from unions and lawmakers like Barrett.

“We should have left out any reference to unfair practices or unlawful acts leaving those exceptional situations to be dealt with under criminal code where they belong,” Barrett said.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

50 Years Ago: Hospitals stonewalled health workers

Gov. Karl Rolvaag named an impartial arbiter in April 1964 to help settle a dispute between five St. Paul hospitals and members of Hospital Employees Local 113, a forerunner of today’s SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.

By April 1964, the hospitals had been dragging their feet in contract negotiations with the union for 13 months. State law denied hospital employees, as well as state and local government workers, the right to strike – meaning Local 113 members’ options for taking action against the hospitals were limited.

“Most unions would call a strike,” The Advocate reported in its April 9 edition, but the “poor substitute” left for hospital employees was to seek arbitration, a move they made after a meeting the month before with hospital management broke down.

R.A. Olson, president of the Minnesota Federation of Labor, said the situation revealed a need to change the state’s laws to empower hospital workers and public employees with a full complement of rights on the job.

“They are forbidden to strike and are given nothing in exchange for their loss of rights,” Olson said.

25 Years Ago: Nursing home workers aired grievances

In a meeting with two members of the Minnesota Senate Finance Committee, about 80 nursing home workers, members of United Food and Commercial Workers, warned that low pay, poor benefits and threadbare staffing were eroding the quality of care in their facilities.

The meeting was organized by the Labor-Management Coalition for Quality Health Care.

One worker told senators she quit her nursing assistant job of nine years even though it meant a $2 per hour pay cut. “I couldn’t take it any more,” she said, noting workers often were assigned 15 to 20 patients at a time.

Sen. Don Samuelson told workers he didn’t anticipate a funding increase for nursing homes during the 1989 legislative session. The Legislature provided for a one-time, 3.5 percent increase in the previous budget, hoping nursing home operators would pass on the influx to workers.

But many of the non-union nursing homes “used it for workers’ compensation premium increases,” so many workers didn’t see a penny, he said.

web.archives-cartoon

Filed Under: From the Archives Tagged With: , , , , , ,
«Previous Page