UE NEWS Updates

“In this time of turmoil, I can think of no better place to support my coworkers, my community, and my values than at the negotiating table.”

So said Melissa Pennington, a member of the UE Local 203 negotiating committee, reflecting on her local’s most recent negotiations with their employer, the grocery co-op City Market. Those negotiations resulted in a new two-year contract which boosts wages for all Local 203 members by at least $2.30 and increases starting wages above $15 per hour.

UE leaders from Local 506 in Erie, PA and Local 610 in Wilmerding, PA met via Zoom in July with their counterparts in Unite the Union in the United Kingdom, who are in a fight with their mutual employer Wabtec.

The UE and Unite members discussed their current fights with Wabtec.

UE Local 610 President Antwon Gibson told the Unite members about his local’s recent contract fight with Wabtec and the company’s announced plans to close the historic Wilmerding plant within the next two years.

On May 24, after repeatedly rejecting proposals from Aramark that would have given bonuses for new hires while doing nothing for current workers, UE Local 1121 won a $1.35 across-the-board wage increase for everyone in the La Crosse facility. As they explained in their newsletter, “Aramark management prefers signing bonuses because they are paid out in a lump sum that does not increase our hourly base wage and does nothing to address the rising cost of living. Our union prefers increases that increase our wages which continue to grow and compound with time.”

On June 19, voters in Colombia made history by electing Gustavo Petro as their next president. Backed by virtually all of Colombia’s labor movement, Petro ran on a pro-worker program aimed at reducing inequality in one of the most unequal economies in the world.