"You're a Union. Act Like It!" — UFCW Staffers Protest Their UFCW Bosses
Union claims UFCW pays females and workers of color less than male counterparts.
By Peter List, Editor | April 8, 2024
Unionized union staffers employed by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) at the UFCW’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. protested their union employer at lunchtime on Monday.
“You’re a Union! Act like it!”
UFCW’s staffers are members of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
Guild members, according to the union’s website, staff the UFCW’s research, communications, accounting, digital, and data & analytics departments, among others.
Though the lunchtime protest lasted only a brief time, according to various social media posts, the union members are fighting for a fair contract with their union employer.
View more of the protest here.
“Women working at UFCW make $5,000 less on average than their male counterparts,” the union claims on its website. “Long-term female employees make $18,000 less on average.”
Black UFCW Guild women disproportionately make up the share of workers making under $75,000: while 62.5% of UFCW Guild employees make less than 75k a year, over 93% of Black UFCW Guild employees are making less than $75,000. This is unacceptable for ANY workplace, but especially a labor union.
On an online petition, the union claims: “The UFCW – similar to many other Union employers – has exposed its hypocrisy by ignoring the problems at home: the unlivably-low pay, the minimal access to remote work, the inadequate sick leave and exploitative use of the probationary period.”
Allegations of anti-union union bosses are not new.
This is not the first time union staffers have had to protest their union employers.
Last year, staffers working at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who are represented by the OPEIU Local 2, authorized a strike and protested outside the SEIU’s headquarters in Washington, even accusing SEIU’s president of “union busting.”
Several years ago, the OPEIU, which represents workers at the AFL-CIO accused the labor federation of being “anti-union,” which is still posted on the union’s website.
Some AFL-CIO union staffers, which are represented by several unions (including the OPEIU and the News Guild) even protested outside the AFL-CIO headquarters.
Whether UFCW management decides to agree to what its unionized employees consider a fair contract remains to be seen.