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May 5, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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Paula
UFCW Local 555: Safeway/Albertsons organizing
drive brings in 4,400 new members
Oregon’s largest private sector
union has just completed its
biggest-ever organizing cam-
paign. United Food and Com-
mercial Workers (UFCW) Lo-
cal 555, which reported 20,140
members as of September, is in
the process of adding 4,400 new
members. The influx is the re-
sult of a year’s worth of organ-
izing at two companies that
were already mostly unionized.
Safeway and Albertsons agreed
to remain neutral, giving union
organizers access to employees
in the break room, and leaving
it up to workers whether they
wanted to sign up. The cam-
paign took place at some loca-
tions that were previously
nonunion, and at nonunion de-
partments at otherwise union-
ized stores. Some stores had
union-represented meat and
grocery workers, for example,
but nonunion workers in the
deli, bakery, or floral depart-
ments.
“We’ve found that organizing
is very difficult when there’s an
anti-union campaign,” said Lo-
cal 555 President Dan Clay.
“However, with an employer
that’s truly neutral, organizing
went really well.”
Local 555 staffed up with or-
ganizers, and brought in organ-
izers from its parent organiza-
tion and other UFCW locals as
well. The campaign was led by
organizing director Peter Diaz,
who joined Local 555 in 2016
after serving as organizing di-
rector for Seattle-headquartered
UFCW Local 21 and as national
field coordinator for OUR Wal-
mart, the UFCW-led organiza-
tion that coordinated walkouts
by individual Walmart employ-
ees.
The union drive came after
the merger of Safeway and Al-
bertsons. Albertsons — owned
by an investor consortium led
by private equity firm Cerberus
Capital Management — ac-
quired Safeway in January 2015
for $9.2 billion.
The newly-signed-up Safe-
way and Albertsons employees
are being added to the union
health and pension plans, at
which point they’ll become full
dues-paying members.
Cafeteria workers unionize at Lewis & Clark College
Bon Appétit Management
Company, the contractor that
runs the cafeteria at Lewis &
Clark College in Southwest
Portland, voluntarily agreed to
recognize a union there on
March 28 after a majority of
workers signed union cards.
Once a first union contract is
negotiated and ratified, the cafe-
teria employees will become
members of Seattle-headquar-
tered UNITE HERE Local 8.
Bon Appétit
is a subsidiary
of the world’s
largest con-
tract
food
service com-
pany,
UK-
headquartered
Compass Group. It manages
cafeterias for corporations, uni-
versities, and specialty venues,
including —
in Portland —
University of
Portland, Reed
College, and
the Theory
Cafe at the
Oregon Mu-
seum of Science & Industry.
Members from Portland and
Seattle helped with the organiz-
ing effort at Lewis & Clark.
UNITE HERE also cam-
paigned at University of Port-
land, but didn’t find majority
support for a union there.
UNITE HERE represents
workers at a number of Bon Ap-
pétit cafeterias around the
United States.