UFCW Local 401

Safeway workers endorse new union contract with Sobeys by 91%, avoiding strike.

When 6,000 Alberta Safeway workers stood shoulder-to-shoulder, we proved what happens when working people use collective leverage. By holding a strong strike mandate, we forced the employer to listen and secured a five-year contract averting a strike and winning the respect we deserve.

This is the union advantage. When we organize, we win.

Are you a grocery worker in a non-union workplace? You deserve a voice, fair pay, and real protection on the job. Join us at UFCW Local 401 and let's build safer, stronger workplaces together.

👉 Read the full story here: https://gounion.ca/news/safeway-workers-endorse-new-union-contract-by-91/

In 2020, Cargill's beef processing plant in High River, Alberta, was the site of the largest industrial COVID-19 outbreak in North America with devastating consequence for UFCW Local 401 members. The week, the Parkland Institute released the results of the first independent investigation into the crisis delivering a scathing analysis of Alberta’s failure to manage and contain the outbreak.

Read more https://l.ufcw.ca/cargill-outbreak-failures

Today, well over a thousand Calgarians came out to participate in the Tenth Anniversary of the Pokaiks Reconciliation Walk & Event, and came out to join in showing solidarity and marking the importance of the 🧡 . It was great to see the strong turnout and a vibrant event at Contemporary Calgary, which is hosting artists and artisans, performances, Tipi Teachings, Indigenous games and an Elders Niche until 5:00 today!

Nearly 1,000 Cargill workers infected, two dead, and no accountability: Six years after Canada’s largest workplace COVID-19 outbreak, Parkland delivers the first comprehensive independent review of Alberta’s disastrous response.
https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/cargill

Today, hosted a press conference highlighting an important report from the Parkland Institute on the COVID-19 outbreak at the Cargill plant in High River in 2020.

Issued by the Parkland Institute, the "Essential and Expendable" report details how the largest single-site COVID-19 outbreak happened, the failures that made it possible, and the reality that this preventable tragedy was the result of the goals of industry taking precedence over the lives of workers.

No accountability or real change has emerged from those events, and as we get ready to bargain on behalf of meat plant workers at Cargill and elsewhere in Alberta, we'll be demanding that the safety of workers comes first. We will begin bargaining with Cargill early next year and will be putting these issues front and center in that process.

In the words of President Thomas Hesse of : ”As Alberta debates immigration in this referendum, we shouldn’t forget what Cargill showed us during the pandemic: many of the people doing the hardest, most essential jobs were immigrants who showed up to do the work Alberta depended on—even when it put their own lives at risk.”

Read the report here: https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/cargill

Support for Safeway workers continues to pour in!

When we served notice to strike last week, we reminded the company that, as members of the Common Front, Safeway workers had the support of more than 300,000 unionized workers across the province.

Some of Alberta’s largest unions, including AUPE, UNA, HSAA, ATA, and CUPE, signed a letter saying that if a strike occurred at grocery stores in Alberta, they would urge their members not to shop at those stores until the strike was over.

Now, university professors from the Mount Royal Faculty Association (MRFA) are voicing their support!

Read more at our website: https://gounion.ca/news/university-professors-support-safeway-workers/