Monthly Archives: June 2024

Members of UFCW Local 663 who work at Quisberg’s and Miner’s grocery stores in Brainerd Lakes, Minn., recently ratified a new contract that increases wages and creates pathways to better part-time jobs.

The three-year agreement, which was ratified by an overwhelming margin by Miner’s and Quisberg’s members, is retroactive to December 3, 2023. Wages became effective on May 5, 2024.

Full- and part-time workers at both companies will see wage increases with improved wage scales for all job classifications. Full-time wage increases vary from $3.50 to $5.45 at Miner’s, and full-time wage increases at Quisberg’s vary from $4.45 to $7.15. All part-time positions at both companies will see increases between $2.25 to $4.00 over the life of the contract.

Union members at Miner’s will see average wage increases of over 17 percent, and members at Quisberg’s will see average wage increases of over 21 percent. The contract also improves all full- and part-time jobs. Some of the highlights include:

•           Improved paid time off and bereavement leave.

•           Path for “extra employees” to become regular part-time (benefit eligible), and path for Utility/Clean Team employees to move to the part-time wage scale.

•           New language ensuring store transfers are offered by seniority and, if forced, would impact the least senior employee.

“Our UFCW union member bargaining team held the line for their co-workers to improve all working conditions,” said UFCW Local 663 Secretary-Treasurer Michael LaCoste, who served as the lead union negotiator. “We know that good working conditions help to create good jobs. Good jobs bring us together and help to demonstrate what we value in our community. Our union contract is a reflection of our values and what we collectively hold in common.”

“Together, UFCW essential grocery store workers in Brainerd Lakes will continue to proudly serve neighbors, family, friends, and visitors,” LaCoste added. “The UFCW welcomes any worker that wants to build a better life together.”

Earlier this year, UFCW Local 400 representative Robert Brown traveled to Rotterdam, Netherlands, to participate in the signing of a historic Memorandum of Understanding between Lipton Teas and Infusions and the IUF global labor federation.

The Memorandum of Understanding language, which was recently released, states that the company recognizes its employees’ labor rights around the world—including UFCW Local 400 members working at the Lipton plant in Suffolk, Va., who joined our union family in 2016. The Lipton plant in Suffolk has more than 200 workers and has operated for more than 60 years, where it produces nearly all of the Lipton tea sold in North America.

For many years, Lipton Teas and Infusions was owned by Unilever. In 2020, Lipton was spun off into a separate entity, ekaterra. In 2022, ekaterra was purchased by CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm. The Memorandum of Understanding committed Lipton’s new ownership to high labor standards.

The Memorandum of Understanding states:

LIPTON Teas and Infusions is committed to ensuring that throughout LIPTON Teas and Infusions’ worldwide operations workers can freely exercise their internationally recognized workers’ rights and in particular their rights to union membership and collective bargaining without fear of retaliation, repression, or any other form of discrimination.

“This is an important step forward with the new company,” Brown said. “It provides new protections moving forward and creates a framework for a productive relationship that will benefit our members.”

Last October, UFCW Local 400 members working at Lipton ratified a strong new contract providing an unprecedented 18 percent wage increase and new benefits.

“This was one of the best contracts our members have gotten since they organized the plant in 2016,” Brown said. “That was with the current management and serves as another indication that our members’ rights and well-being will be protected in the years to come. Of course, their union will make sure of that, as well.”

The UFCW is an affiliate of the IUF, “the food, farm, hotels and more global union.” In addition to Brown, union representatives participating in the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding included leaders from the IUF, Pakistan Food Workers Federation, and Tanzania Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union.