by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

QFC bakery worker Kyle Aguve had to cancel his appointment to be interviewed by SGN. He'd been called in to work at the last minute.

Unintentionally, he illustrated one of his union's biggest complaints - the lack of a predictable work schedule for grocery employees.

Aguve is a shop steward at the QFC in the Harvard Market on Capitol Hill. He is also on the bargaining team for his store.

His union - United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 21 - is in its third month of contract negotiations with Kroger Foods, the corporate owners of QFC and Fred Meyer. Both of the other "Big 3" grocery chains - Safeway and Albertson's - are also bargaining new contracts with UFCW 21.

Besides the Big 3, PCC, Madison Market, Metropolitan Market, and other smaller grocery stores will have new contracts when negotiations are completed. In all, some 20,000 workers will be affected, according to UFCW 21's Communications Director Tom Geiger.

When Aguve was finally able to talk with SGN, he explained that he was filling in for a sick co-worker.

"I'm in one of the luckier departments - the bakery," he says. "My department is on a set schedule. My days off are basically the same. The checkers and grocery workers are the ones who get hit hardest."

"They make up a two-week schedule, but they post changes every week," Aguve explains, "so you never get the same days off. They change on a weekly basis."

The result is that grocery workers find it almost impossible to schedule their lives outside of work.

"We need a set schedule to be able to make doctor's appointments and stuff," Aguve says. "Some of our employees close at 9:00 p.m. and then work the next day at 6:00 a.m. One day you're working day shift, the next day night shift. You have no life at all."

Short hours, low wages
Another issue in the contract negotiations is that most grocery stores will not guarantee their workers a solid 40-hour workweek. According to Geiger, a mere 28 hours per week is normal in the industry.

Aguve confirms Geiger's statement.

"Most of us [in the bakery] are at 35 hours," he tells SGN, "but most of my store are at 25 to 28 hours."

"And there are a lot of split shifts," he adds. "That's one of the biggest problems. They're deliberately doing split schedules."

Split shifts and an unpredictable schedule mean grocery workers find it hard - if not completely out of the question - to get and keep second jobs to supplement their short hours.

This is a challenge for workers who are still on the low-income end of the economic scale. According to Geiger, one-third of all grocery workers earn $10 an hour or less.

Medical coverage
Aguve tells SGN that wages are not his biggest worry, however.

"The biggest issue is the medical benefits," he says. "They offered me a promotion to a manager position, but managers have a terrible medical package. That's my reason for working here [in the bakery] at my age - the medical benefits."

In 2007 UFCW 21 fought for and won medical benefits for the same-sex domestic partners of its members at the same level as married spouses.

The union also put its political weight behind the Approve Referendum 71 campaign to validate the state's domestic partnership law last year. UFCW 21 opened its state-of-the-art phone banking facility to Washington Families Standing Together, and assigned dedicated union staff time to the campaign.

"The domestic partnership agreement really does help our community," Aguve says. "If we lose that, it will have a huge impact on all of us on the Hill. If I couldn't have my partner on my policy I guess he'd have to be on public assistance."

According to Geiger, the cost to employers of the union's health plan has not increased at all in the last five years. The union is exploring ways of modifying its healthcare package to reduce costs but keep the same level of coverage, he says - for example, wellness plans and online health assessment services.

Aguve insists that keeping the union's medical coverage intact and reasonably priced is the "line in the sand" for this year's negotiations.

"How do you survive?" he asks. "How do you make it? I'd rather get no pay raise at all than give up medical."

Sick leave
While UFCW grocery workers like their medical insurance, they are unhappy with their sick leave.

Under the terms of their old contract, workers must be out sick for three consecutive days before they are eligible for paid sick leave. That can be hard to achieve with irregular and unpredictable scheduling.

It can be even harder for workers making less than $10 an hour and working only 28 hours a week to give up three shifts in order to qualify for sick leave.

The result, according to Geiger, is that workers often feel they are forced to work sick. A fair sick leave system, he says, is one of the key demands in negotiations.

"The economy has been fairly good for us&"
While employers contend that the recession has left them with very little room to make a deal with the union, Aguve says otherwise.

"Actually the economy has been fairly good for us," he tells SGN. "People stay in more. They cut out travel and eating out, but they spend more on luxury goods to enjoy at home - cakes, donuts, wine. You can buy a whole cake for what you'd spend on one slice if you go out."

"I think we're doing all right, if anything we're doing better," he adds. "I'm amazed at how busy it is in our store."

The numbers bear out Aguve's impression. The major grocery chains regularly make the Fortune 500 list of America's top corporations, often coming in at the top of the top - the Fortune 50.

This year Kroger, the corporate owner of QFC and Fred Meyer, came in at No. 23. Supervalu, the corporate owner of Albertson's, ranked 47, and Safeway placed 52.

Rabidly anti-union Wal-Mart, UFCW's long-time nemesis, ranked No.1.

Bargaining
Unlike some unions, whose contract negotiations are conducted by a small group of union officers and their attorneys, UFCW 21 has named 25 rank-and-file members to its bargaining team.

Aguve is the backup for one of those rank-and-file members, he explains. While he does not normally attend bargaining sessions, he still has to be up on the issues and the progress of negotiations.

"It's a slow process," he tells SGN. "I've been through three negotiations since I've been at this store, and they're all different."

Aguve is by no means hostile to his employer. In fact, he commends QFC for being Gay-friendly.

"One thing I want to say: As long as I've worked for QFC, they've been supportive of the Gay community," he tells SGN. "I've never had a Gay issue as shop steward. There have been racial issues - a lot, in my store - but never a Gay issue."

"In my store they do provide safety equipment, gloves and that kind of thing," he adds, referring to another union concern. "It's not all 'we take everything and we give you guys nothing.'"

Workers' Bill of Rights
The union has made huge strides in involving rank-and-file leaders, says Geiger. Besides its rank-and-file bargaining team members, it now has 400 stewards and an additional 900 "store leaders" following the progress of negotiations and reporting to their co-workers.

Out of discussions among its activist members, the union has compiled a "Workers' Bill of Rights" summarizing their demands:

o "We have the right to fair pay so we can afford food, clothing, a place to live, and the other necessities we need to live our lives and support our families.

o "We have a right to a life outside of work, including two dependable days a week for ourselves, our families, our places of worship, and our communities.

o "We have a right to an affordable health plan that helps us stay well and takes care of us when we are ill.

o "We have a right to a dependable pension so we can retire with dignity.

o "We have a right to paid sick days when we are sick so we can stay at home, get well and contribute to a healthy food supply.

o "We have a right to protection against unjust firing or demotion, and unfair discipline.

o "We have a right to decent and safe working conditions. This includes basic humane treatment including rest breaks and worker safety protections.

o "We have a right to a voice in the workplace when we choose to have a union, without any interference by our employers.

o "Grocery workers and our customers have a right to healthy food in the stores where we work and shop."

According to Geiger, more than 9000 union members have signed the Bill of Rights to date, and a number of labor and community organizations have endorsed it.

Asked what grocery customers should do to show their support for union workers, Aguve says, "We need community support, to get the message across to the management. Come into the store and let them know, 'as a Gay person, I support the workers.'"

 Share on Facebook

Share on MySpace!

    Share on Delicious

Share on StumbleUpon!