Our Vote Is Essential
Voting is one of the most important ways to make sure our local, state and national governments work better for hard-working people. Holding politicians accountable and supporting the issues that matter isn’t something we only do at the ballot box. UFCWVotes engages our elected representatives on essential worker issues every day. Together, we can and do make government work better for working people.
Key Federal Legislative Priorities:
- Strengthen unions and the freedom to negotiate at work
- A worker friendly farm bill that puts food workers at the center of agriculture policy
- Full rights and equal protections for immigrant workers
- Fairness, safety, and a voice at work for cannabis workers
- Protecting working people from injury, illness, and death on the job
- Raising job standards for all workers
- Protecting the right to vote
- Steady, reliable retirement income and affordable health care for all
Strengthen Workers’ Right to Form Unions and Negotiate at Work
Every worker has the right to join with coworkers and organize a union. Irresponsible employers often intimidate pro-union employees and suppress workers’ efforts to have a voice on the job.
Unions are good for all workers. When workers negotiate together, they are more likely to have employer provided health insurance, paid leave, and higher wages. Industries with higher union density pay higher wages and provide better benefits even to non-union workers.
In the “gig” economy, companies are increasingly misclassifying workers as “independent contractors,” dodging payroll taxes, not paying fair wages or overtime, and denying workers the right to organize a union and negotiate together for better wages and working conditions. Workers in new and emerging industries deserve a voice on the jobs just like everyone else.
UFCW calls on policymakers to:
- Support the right of all workers to negotiate free from fear, intimidation, or interference from employers and safeguard the right to strike
- Penalize employers that violate the rights of their employees
- End “independent contractor” classification abuses by irresponsible companies
- Eliminate “Right to Work” laws
- Ensure federal government contracts only go to companies that pay living wages, provide a safe workplace, affirmatively notify workers of their rights, and do not interfere with workers’ ability to join a union and bargain collectively
- Pass the Protecting the Right to Organize or PRO Act.
Protect a Healthy and Safe Food Supply Chain
Nearly one million UFCW members are employed in food processing and retail food. Protecting UFCW members is essential to protecting the food supply chain and making sure all American have access to safe and nutritious food. We believe that no one who works hard should go hungry. The federal food stamp or SNAP program serves as the first line of defense against hunger and should be expanded to support to working families in hard-working communities.
UFCW knows that food safety requires safe and healthy food workers and calls on policymakers to:
- Keep line speeds in meat processing plants safe, reducing injury and safeguarding food
- Ensure SNAP online purchases only go to authorized retailers that provide good jobs and benefits to workers all along the food supply chain from cashiers to delivery drivers.
- Invest in the workers that keep America fed by supporting a Worker Friendly Farm Bill that includes
- Agricultural Workers Justice Act
- Food and Nutrition Delivery Safety Act
- Food Secure Strikers Act
- Grocery, Farm, and Food Worker Stabilization Grant Program Act
- Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act
- Supporting Our Farm and Food System Workers Act
Secure Retirement for All
Everyone deserves a steady, reliable income once they leave the workforce. We need a strong pension system, expanded Social Security benefits, and fair wages so working families can build up retirement savings over the course of their careers.
The shift from traditional employer sponsored pensions to individual savings has left many workers with insufficient or no retirement savings at all.
UFCW calls on policymakers to:
- Stabilize the multiemployer pension system
- Prioritize workers’ pensions when businesses declare bankruptcy
Full Rights and Equal Protections for Immigrant Workers
Immigrants and refugees have enriched the fabric of our communities and our workforce since our nation’s founding. Our current immigration system is badly broken, allowing unscrupulous companies to exploit immigrant workers by paying guest workers less than they would pay American workers, while sending those with legal work permits home to countries devastated by war and disasters. We need to create a fair immigration process that enables people to contribute to our communities, lifts labor standards, and empowers workers.
UFCW calls on policymakers to:
- Support the renewal of all Temporary Protective Status (TPS) designations and the creation of a permanent legal pathway for working people on TPS
- Create a new framework for the H-2B temporary guest worker visa program to prevent discrimination and displacement, elevate labor standards, and create a path to citizenship for immigrant workers; and
- Pass the American Dream and Promise Act
Make All Cannabis Jobs Good Jobs
The UFCW is the nation’s largest union of workers in cannabis-related businesses, with 10,000 members and growing. Because of federal restrictions, cannabis workers face unique economic, health and safety challenges.
Big corporations are gearing up to control the cannabis sector. But in this unique moment, we have the opportunity to ensure a newly legalized industry is one that provides good jobs, supports states’ budgets, and brings healing to communities most impacted by past policies and laws. The UFCW believes that it is essential that the cannabis industry operates under labor-friendly standards that promote safety, equity, justice, and economic security for its workers and consumers.
UFCW calls on policymakers to:
- Deschedule cannabis and fund social equity programs for individuals and communities most harmed by the war on drugs
- Allow banks to serve cannabis businesses without risking federal prosecution
- Ensure strong job standards for all cannabis jobs
- Protect the state based cannabis industry; and
- Pass the SAFE Banking Act.