Safeway workers in Winnipeg call for stronger UFCW

Faced with their employer’s abusive practices, Winnipeg Safeway workers say that the UFCW has an important role to play in helping them stand up and fight for better. They also say that the union has been absent, and that it needs to start taking its role more seriously.  

Over the last few weeks, The North Star spoke with several workers about their experiences in UFCW Local 832, which represents Safeway workers across Manitoba. Among these workers were three current or former shop stewards.

Tara says she became a shop steward because she wanted to help people. She expressed pride that her coworkers felt comfortable with her because she made an effort to be there for them, to listen to their problems, and to offer advice. When the opportunity came up to become a shop steward, she chose to step up.

Francis, for his part, says that workers should be “able to trust that there is somebody they can get help from,” and because of this, he wants to help build the unity and strength of workers in the UFCW. His interest in workers’ rights caught the attention of his union representative, who encouraged him to become a shop steward. 

And finally, Jordan sees unions as important both for protecting workers’ interests and in fighting for broader social change. Having worked at Safeway for over a decade, he decided to become a shop steward because he saw that the position could allow him to help his coworkers. For him, it’s been a “positive experience being able to be there for people.” 

In talking to The North Star, Safeway workers expressed a lot of enthusiasm to challenge the corporate vision and culture which currently dominates the grocery chain, which they say is causing stress, fatigue, and financial hardship. But while the union can be a powerful tool for building and advancing a worker-led vision in the workplace, workers also say that it has major problems to address.

Widespread disengagement

The union may be important, but workers told The North Star that the UFCW’s practice of membership education has not done a good job at raising awareness. They say that, currently, UFCW Local 832 does not have a single program or course which is available to the general membership, for any reason.

“People don’t know about the union, they don’t know how it works, they don’t know about what shop stewards can do, and they don’t know about what the union rep can do,” says Francis. 

Francis says this has led to “a culture in the workplace where employees go with whatever management says nine times out of ten.” This culture of inactivity makes it harder for shop stewards to do their job well; “Often, before I can even challenge what management has said, the employee has already just given up.”

Because the union hasn’t shown workers it is possible to stand up to management and win, many issues in the store never get reported in the first place, even in cases where shop stewards have been direct witnesses.

The shop stewards say that lack of education has also limited their ability to get their coworkers engaged in the union. “We received really no training or support,” says Tara. 

Francis explained that the training courses which the union currently puts on for shop stewards are small, infrequent, and that he hasn’t seen the union invest much energy into getting shop stewards out to them. He says the union’s low level of investment into the training courses “contributes to the fact that shop stewards so often don’t know what they can do or what their powers are.”  

Francis has done his best to attend the classes, which he says has meant going to the three which have been available to him in the last year. 

However, he says the classes he could get into left him confused about the limits of the role, and uncertain how to take initiative with it. He describes coming away with the impression that shop stewards are glorified note-takers and witnesses.

Of the three current or former shop stewards we spoke to, none felt they had been equipped by the union to challenge management. 

The workers say their union representative’s leadership has often made this confusion worse. Despite the fact that the collective agreement states “the union representatives will encourage the shop stewards to […] attempt to resolve concerns at the local store level,” workers say that their representative has done the exact opposite, repeatedly encouraging workers to bypass shop stewards entirely and to rely solely on him.  

Tara says that, in her time as a shop steward, her union rep advised her to hand off all issues she received to him, whom she says “seemed to lack the fire to really fight or really care,” and “always seemed to side with management.” 

Seeing serious problems neglected in this way led her to feel frustrated, and eventually to resign from the position.

Union representatives are often responsible for more than a dozen workplaces, which can make it difficult to address all local issues. Safeway workers interviewed by The North Star believe that, as a result, union representatives’ responses to reports have been slow and impersonal.

Beyond effectively depriving shop stewards of the opportunity to fulfill their duties, the interviewees say the leadership’s inactivity has led many UFCW members at Safeway to lose confidence in the union and its ability to address issues in the workplace.

According to Francis, the first barrier to building a stronger union at Safeway is that “there needs to be a culture of workers feeling safe to communicate issues with the union,” but owing to the low level of education and leadership the workers have received, “it doesn’t exist right now.”

Change starts with the workers

Workers say that overcoming these problems is possible, and that building a stronger UFCW is the key to positive change at Safeway. According to Francis, the first step is “a drive by members to meet and talk, to discuss issues big and small, to foster solidarity between coworkers and to just get to know each other,” adding that there is no need to wait for it to be encouraged by the union.

He says that speaking more openly and more often could help the workforce “to be thinking about the union, and how it can help solve their problems.” 

Francis explains that there are also things the union can and should do to help workers in this: “a more present union rep and more empowered shop stewards could create a constant reminder that the UFCW is actually around.” He says. 

“I think my coworkers being able to trust that there is somebody they can get help from who can wield the collective agreement would encourage members to interact with their union and to learn their rights.”

Across the board, Safeway workers echoed this desire for the union to be more active in the workplace. Despite having been a shop steward, Tara says she has had “very little interaction with the union. In 3 years, I’ve only met our union rep maybe twice? It feels like too little. I see the manager all the time, it should be just as frequent to see the union.” Jordan proposed that the union “should do more to support shop stewards, and to make sure that people know that what they’re doing is important.”

Francis stresses that regardless of what help comes from above, workers should know that change starts with them. “To me, a strong UFCW would be a united one. Most of my coworkers don’t know other coworkers in the store, let alone who their shop stewards are, or who their rep is. I think this has led to most members taking up issues on their own, or simply never bringing up what concerns them. A more united workforce could bring up issues to management together, and not just during collective bargaining, but anytime.” 

*pseudonyms have been used