Jessica Foster leads the floral department and has worked at the North Bend QFC for 21 years. She loves working at QFC, and she says she always hopes the company will be as loyal to her as she is to them. But when she explored the idea of expanding her role at the store, someone told her she would need to take a pay cut to do it. She was stunned. It didn’t make sense to her that increasing her skills and knowledge would make her less valuable to the company.

During the 2022 Puget Sound Grocery Store negotiations, our union struck a deal for a new wage scale that dramatically increased pay rates in departments such as deli, floral, and coffee kiosks. The deal also allowed those workers to transfer to other departments without losing credit for hours worked towards their next raise. Jessica and her fellow floral managers felt frustrated with QFC for saying the new deal meant workers like them could not transfer departments without losing their current rate of pay, which was the opposite of why our union fought for the language in the first place.

Jessica talked to her union representative about the situation, the rep believed that QFC had violated the contract, and so a grievance was filed on behalf of her and others. The union argued that floral department leads already perform cashiering duties, and that the new wage class did not aim to lower the pay of workers seeking work elsewhere in the store, so the company shouldn’t penalize those workers for broadening their skillset. Eventually, QFC agreed and settled the grievance. Now, Jessica and other workers covered by this grievance can develop their careers without losing their rate of pay!

When something doesn’t feel right at work, tell your shop steward or union representative about it. If the issue violates the contract, a grievance could go a long way toward making it right. And if the issue doesn’t violate the contract, then talk to your coworkers about getting it changed during the next round of contract negotiations. Right now, tens of thousands of grocery store workers in Western Washington are doing just that at the table with Albertsons and Kroger. These employers feel a lot of pressure because they know that when we fight, we win!