Posts Categorized: Grocery

UFCW Local 367 recently used the Hustle app to mobilize their members after Washington Governor Jay Inslee limited outdoor gatherings in response to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the state and across the country.

UFCW Local 367 had originally planned a 200-member action to call for hazard pay and safe stores, but pivoted to holding smaller actions after Governor Inslee restricted gatherings to five people. Two member organizers from the local used Hustle, an innovative texting app that helps locals make personal and authentic connections with workers without relying solely on physical home calls, to reach other members. Using the Hustle app, UFCW Local 367 reached over 6,500 members and collected quotes, photos and recorded messages about why hazard pay is so important. 

The member organizers then drove an SUV with an essential workers banner to the parking lots of seven different grocery stores in Lacey, Tumwater and Olympia, and blared the recorded messages from members on a loudspeaker so that customers could hear what hazard pay and safe stores mean to grocery workers. You can see many of the worker stories that the local collected here. 

“We were determined to engage our membership,” said Patty Estes, who is a SPUR and helped to engage her fellow UFCW Local 367 members via the Hustle app. “Thinking outside of the normal past practice is necessary. I think we were successful in having authenticity with our members because of the crafted, very targeted messages we sent out. Quite honestly, I was overwhelmed trying to read every message that came back. We had to create automatic messages with our asks that I could hit quickly.”

“I feel asking members to take collective action through Hustle really made a huge impact in member engagement and them feeling a connection with the union,” said UFCW Local 367 Communications Director Tracey Lopez.

“Workers were excited for the upcoming actions; the new restrictions were not going to stop us,” said UFCW Local 367 President Angel González Irizarry. “We quickly adapted to find a way for their voices to be heard. Switching our action to mobile and virtual opened the action up for all members to participate no matter their location or work schedule. They loved seeing the action play live on Facebook and see their personal stories go public. They are still talking about it in the stores. We will continue to fight for the hazard pay and safe stores these workers deserve.”

To date, the UFCW Communications Department has trained hundreds of representatives and organizers to use this new method of communicating with workers as part of their servicing and organizing campaigns. If your local union is interested in learning to use the Hustle app, please have your Region Director contact Moira Bulloch in the Communications Department at mbulloch@ufcw.org.

On Nov. 25, the UFCW announced a new agreement with ShopRite on hazard pay for nearly 50,000 of our members in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. The deal with ShopRite recognizes the ongoing risks ShopRite workers have faced as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, and provides retroactive hazard pay that covers all hours worked between July 26 and August 22.

The new agreement for ShopRite hazard pay is another powerful victory for grocery workers and increases pressure on national grocery chains to do the right thing and provide additional hazard pay to their workers as they continue serving on the frontlines of the pandemic.

The new UFCW agreement with ShopRite includes the following:

• Nearly 50,000 union ShopRite grocery employees represented by the UFCW and RWDSU will receive retroactive premium pay for this past summer.
• Retroactive premium pay will be provided to each employee in the form of lump sum payments equal to one dollar ($1.00) per hour for all hours worked between July 26 and August 22.  
• In the case of future COVID-19 outbreaks resulting in government orders closing all businesses, except essential businesses, ShopRite has agreed to meet UFCW and RWDSU local unions to discuss additional hazard pay.
• Additionally, ShopRite has agreed to observe a moment of silence on Workers’ Memorial Day and Labor Day each year, starting in 2021, to recognize frontline workers lost to COVID-19 and the collective strength union membership has provided to its employees.

“Grocery workers have been on the frontlines since this pandemic began and continue to put themselves in harm’s way to help families put food on the table this Thanksgiving,” said UFCW International President Marc Perrone in a statement. “This new UFCW agreement is a powerful victory for ShopRite grocery workers across New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.” 

“UFCW local unions worked with ShopRite to provide temporary hazard pay at the start of the pandemic and when that pay raise expired, these courageous grocery workers came together again to reach a new agreement with ShopRite on hazard pay as this crisis continues,” Perrone added.

“Today, UFCW grocery workers are sending a clear message to supermarket chains across the country that this pandemic is far from over, and every CEO must do the right thing by providing the hazard pay that these brave essential workers have earned and deserve as the threat from COVID-19 continues.”