Posts Categorized: Organizing

Health care hospitality workers at McKellar Place, an independent senior living facility in the city of Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada, recently voted unanimously in favor of joining UFCW Local 175.

Our newest members work as housekeepers, front clerks, and kitchen staff at McKellar Place. The workers contacted our union to help them achieve better working conditions, curb mistreatment, address concerns with scheduling, and ensure wages were paid on time.

“Workers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” said UFCW Local 175 President Kelly Tosato. “These workers stood up for themselves and we will have their backs as they work toward making positive changes through collective bargaining as union members.”

On August 27, about 49 workers at Bookmans bookstore in Tucson, Ariz., made history by becoming the first bookstore in Arizona to unionize by joining UFCW Local 99.

Bookmans is a Tucson-headquartered retail chain that buys and sells used goods, including books, music, movies, and games, and the workers are employed in positions ranging from cashiers to department supervisors and managers on duty.

The workers joined our union family because they were concerned about the sudden layoff of some of their colleagues in the company’s marketing team and wanted a voice in the workplace.

“I wanted to unionize our store for better pay and benefits, but also because we feel undervalued,” said Kai Parmenter, who is a book department buyer at Bookmans. “Our subject matter expertise and relationships with customers is what makes Bookmans thrive. We deserve to be treated like it. Now that we have a union, we finally have a voice to make things better.”

“Standing up for positive change takes courage and is a testament to the commitment of Bookmans employees to preserve and improve the institution that they’ve helped build,” said UFCW Local 99 President Jim McLaughlin. “On behalf of our entire union family, I am proud to congratulate Bookmans workers on this historic accomplishment and look forward to bringing their concerns to the bargaining table.”