Nonunion workers are on their own. Union workers bargain collectively with their employers. In the Collective Bargaining section, we report on all aspects of that: negotiations, mediations, and arbitrations; impasses, lockouts, and strikes; and tentative agreements, votes, and ratification of new union contracts.
At the height of the Washington teacher strike wave, as many as 8,000 teachers were walking picket lines — including 5,000 in seven Southwest Washington districts.
The 600-member unit provides ambulance service to Multnomah and Clackamas counties in Oregon, and Clark and Cowlitz counties in Washington.
For 60,000 Southwest Washington students, the first lesson of the school year is about union power.
UFCW Local 555’s “Unity Negotiations” will set the terms for workers at Fred Meyer, Safeway, Albertsons and more.
The new agreement raises starting pay to $18.50 an hour — up from $16.25 currently.
The new agreement provides annual raises of 3 percent, plus additional raises of 1 to 3 percent halfway through the third year to get members on a unified union wage scale.
The agreement provides an immediate 10 percent raise followed by three annual raises totaling 8.7 percent over the life of the four-year agreement.
Members voted down two previous company offers and authorized a strike.
The profitable company is halting pension contributions at the same time it pays its executives so much that even shareholders are gagging.
The employer’s hard-line stance crumbled a week before VOA’s annual fundraising gala, which the union planned to picket.
