Posts Categorized: Grocery

On Jan. 17, grocery workers at four Gourmet Garage stores in New York City joined UFCW Local 1500 for a better life.

Gourmet Garage stores have provided local chefs, restaurant buyers and New Yorkers with high quality groceries for more than 30 years, and these 98 hard-working men and women are employed as grocery, produce, dairy, meat, deli, seafood and coffee department clerks and cashiers. They voted to join our union via card check because they wanted a voice in the workplace, especially with regard to job stability, and the same wages and benefits that other unionized grocery workers in the area have. With this organizing win, all Gourmet Garage stores in New York City are now unionized.

These workers realize the benefits of belonging to our union family and are looking forward to making the most out of their first union contract.

“All we were looking for is to be equal in this industry,” said José A. Ramirez. “We wanted wage increase guarantees and benefits that companies like D’Agostino, Fairway, and ShopRite have through a union contract. We do the same work and wanted to be on the same playing field as them and that’s why we chose to unionize. Now we are proud to say that we are members of the largest grocery store worker union in New York. When we saw the union walk through our doors, we knew who they were and we are excited to work with them.”

On Dec. 23, workers at MOM’s Organic Market in College Park, Md., joined UFCW Local 400 for a better life.

The workers chose to organize with UFCW Local 400 because they sought wages and benefits that better reflected their contributions to the workplace. As they move towards negotiating their first contract, they hope to fight for better health insurance and family sustaining wages, with a wage scale based on years of service and that addresses cost of living concerns.

The workers’ organizing committee released the following statement:

“We, the workers of MOM’s Organic Market College Park, are proud to have formed our union today and are looking forward to the next steps in building our union. We thank the community of College Park and our co-workers at our fellow MOM’s Organic Market stores – union and non-union alike – for their solidarity as we fought for this union. We are proud of what we have built together as colleagues and look forward to showing you all what we will build in the new year together.”