How UFCW Members Are Fighting for Immigration Protections in Union Contracts
UFCW members at grocery chain El Super are fighting for protection from ICE in their contract negotiations, which have been ongoing since April 16, 2025.
El Super workers gathered outside of Chedraui headquarters in Commerce, Calif. on January 21, 2026. Photo courtesy of UFCW Local 770.
Over 100 rank and file UFCW members and community supporters rallied outside of the Chedraui headquarters in Commerce, Calif. on January 21, 2026. Chedraui is a Mexican company that owns El Super Markets in Southern California. Workers at El Super have been fighting for months for a fair contract, including living wages and protections from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while at work.
5,000 members of UFCW Locals 770, 324, 1167, 1428, and 1445 have been working under an expired contract at El Super since April 16, 2025 — that’s nine months without a contract.
Last fall, members rejected El Super’s offensive offer of wage increases ranging from just one cent to twenty-two cents an hour.
Additionally, El Super is refusing to include contract language members have demanded for increased safety measures in the face of increasing attacks on immigrant workers, particularly in the Los Angeles area.
Despite being home to a predominantly Latino workforce and customer base, El Super won’t budge on allowing workers time off to handle immigration issues, including attending immigration court hearings.
Workers have been fighting for language similar to the immigration protections won in Kroger and Albertsons contracts in California last year, that “unless required by law, the employer will not allow agents of DHS or ICE to access any non-public area of the worksite without a warrant.”
“A lot of teenagers come into our store to buy groceries for their parents because they are scared,” Teodora Urieta told the Whittier Daily News. Urieta has worked for El Super for 16 years.
Workers who are afraid to go to work will also be afraid to stand up to the boss and enforce the contract. Fear is a tactic to divide and conquer workers. Solidarity is the solution.