At Willy Street Co-op, new union contract sets $15 minimum wage
The second union contract took effect Wednesday at the Willy Street Co-op, bringing minimum starting pay to $15 an hour and raising average wages by 20% over the two-year term.
“We're actually able to be competitive in the job market now,” said David Droster, chief steward of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1186, which represents roughly 300 nonmanagerial Co-op workers at the three Madison stores and central kitchen. The workers overwhelmingly voted in a union in September 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic would earn grocery workers across the country the moniker of “essential workers.”