Tell New Seasons Market: Negotiate With Your Workers!

New Seasons Market, a crunchy grocery chain in the Pacific Northwest, just implemented a big change in working conditions for union workers without their consent. New Seasons Labor Union is fighting back.

Workers are now being asked to reduce their work hours and tasked with taking on work not just in their own departments, but other areas of the stores, too. What do you call more work for the same pay? Well, we call it what it is: a pay cut.

Can you take a minute to send a message to New Seasons Market, urging them to fully staff their stores and negotiate a fair contract with their workers?

New Seasons Market Making Unilateral Changes

Here’s the deal: New Seasons Labor Union, the independent, worker-led union of New Seasons Market employees, has eleven unionized locations in the Pacific Northwest. Workers there have been fighting for a fair first contract for over two years. 

Now, instead of negotiating in good faith, corporate is abruptly changing the work that people were hired to do. These changes include seeking voluntary reduction in hours from staff and increasing staff responsibility. New Seasons Market has highly specialized departments, with most staff trained and assigned to one department only upon hire. Now, New Seasons expects workers to take on responsibilities in another department as needed, with no additional pay. 

After multiple attempts in bargaining failed to reach an agreement, New Seasons declared impasse. The market is implementing these staffing changes on its own, despite the fact that the union is still ready and willing to talk. The union is fighting back against these unilateral changes.

Showing that members of the public are watching, and side with the workers, is an important part of how New Seasons workers will ultimately win a fair contract. Can you take a moment to send a message of solidarity to New Seasons corporate?

New Seasons Labor Union is Fighting Back

During the past two years, New Seasons Market hasn’t played fair. Early this year, New Seasons workers at multiple stores went on a nine day strike in support of coworker and union officer Randy Foster, who was abruptly fired from New Seasons Market after helping a visually-impaired coworker complete a task while he was off the clock.

Last year, the union called on the local community to boycott New Seasons until a contract was reached. Thousands of customers signed the “No Contract, No Customers” pledge.

Apparently New Seasons Market has been feeling the financial effects of this boycott, because they are calling the staff cuts and workload increases at union stores a “business necessity.”

We need to show that when a supposedly progressive company like New Seasons Market tries to steamroll its union, there are consequences. That’s why your voice is so critical right now.

Stand with New Seasons workers and let New Seasons Market know that this is unacceptable. Instead of cutting hours or increasing employee’s workload, there is another solution–negotiating a fair contract with their workers!

In Solidarity,

The Labor Force