OPINION | Want Better Pay? Reach Out to a Union Today

Truly, do you want better pay at work? Better health insurance? Better treatment by management? Then the union is your answer. My name is Yasab Pfister, and I have worked at PCC Community Markets for almost 13 years (currently I work at the Burien location), and one reason I enjoy working at PCC is that it is unionized.

I am a proud husband and father too, and being a part of a union directly helps me and my family. I started at PCC when I was 17 years old in high school and didn’t know what a labor union was. A union is an organized group of people who represent employees to make the workplace work better for them. Union is power. It helps us get good contracts, better raises, better health benefits, better workplace morale and helps us employees use our voices to stand up for what is right when something is wrong.

One way I have a voice personally is by being one of 11 workers on our union bargaining team, which negotiates contracts with our employer. My coworkers rely on me and the others on the team to represent them and fight for the best contract. And the team relies on coworkers taking action together in solidarity to build power and push for the changes we need.

For example, PCC was behind with wages, but in 2023 and early 2024, the union helped PCC employees get the biggest raises yet. Now, PCC pays some of the highest wages in the grocery industry and is considered to have one of the best union grocery store worker contracts in the nation. And since we have a union, we were able to fight for raises without the fear of being fired, because our union protects us from that. Almost every state has “at-will” employment laws, which means employees can be terminated for no reason at any time. Our union contracts prevent that.

Imagine if the employees of major non-union companies such as Amazon, Walmart, and McDonalds, which make billions and billions of dollars, had a union. Right now, these companies always find reasons why they can’t afford to pay their employees what they’re worth. Does that sound right to you? However, if the union were involved, the outcome would be astronomically life-changing for those employees.

Our union also builds power by working with people and organizations in the community generally and PCC shoppers specifically. We take action to elect politicians and hold them accountable to our needs. Elected representatives’ voices and perspectives are influential. Unfortunately, many of our elected representatives do not support unions.

And the most influential voice of them all is the president’s. In 2025, Trump will be president for the second time, and no matter what your political beliefs are, a huge concern to many is that he doesn’t support unions. In the past, he has said that people are paid too much, that the federal minimum wage is too high, and that people who strike should be fired. Having a leader with so much power against unionization can create major pushback for unions. In other words, there is less hope in a Trump administration for unionizing major companies. Despite this though, if we stick together by showing people what the union is and what the union does, major companies and anti-union politicians will instead have to answer their workers’ demands for workplace democracy.

The first step is you, the employee, reaching out to the union. If you want to learn about unions, you can contact UFCW 3000 or any union, call a union member, attend a union meeting, or read about unions online. Because employers don’t generally want their employees to organize, they may object to a union, but that’s okay — the union can help figure out ways to proceed in that situation, even if that means employees gathering to protest.

If you want someone to care for you and your family, to give you a strong voice, better pay, and better benefits, I hope you are inspired to initiate a union in your workplace. It is the union’s job to bring communities together, fight together for the rights of employees, and form a strong workplace democracy. Union is power. When we stick together, nothing can beat us.

The South Seattle Emerald is committed to holding space for a variety of viewpoints within our community, with the understanding that differing perspectives do not negate mutual respect amongst community members.

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