Essential Voice
an Essential Workers for Democracy newspaper to share with your coworkers!
Issue #7 - Summer 2026
Labor Notes: “Grocery Workers File Union Democracy Lawsuit”
Members seeking to transform the United Food and Commercial Workers have added a new weapon to their arsenal: legal action.
The 60 UFCW Officials Making Over $250k/Year (2024)
In 2023, 60 UFCW officials were paid over $250,000 in total compensation — all the way up to $740,892. Altogether, our union spent $20,153,611 in 2023 in combined compensation for the $250k Club.
Zoom Training: “How to Have an Organizing Conversation”
Click here to register for our Zoom training, “Kroger & Albertsons by the Numbers” on Monday, April 7, 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT.
Stop Retaliation: Open Letter to UFCW International
Dear President Perrone, Secretary-Treasurer Jones, and Members of the UFCW International Executive Board: It has come to our attention that retaliatory statements have been made by various representatives of the UFCW in relation to the lawsuit filed by rank and file plaintiffs Kyong Barry and Iris Scott.
Politico: UFCW rank and file sue leadership in increasingly bitter dispute
Rank-and-file members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union International are suing their leadership over what they say is a lack of democratic representation on key issues like a major grocery merger and a decline in organizing expenditures
“Rank-and-file Members Are Waking Their Sleeping Union Giants.”
Grocery workers file federal lawsuit against UFCW International. “UFCW’s system is rigged…”
Jacobin: TDU and the New Labor Insurgency
TDU’s theory of change is that reforms that open up the labor movement to member involvement build worker power. It’s a participatory democracy model that…
What’s “$30 + COLA”?
If you’re asking this, you’re probably either in conversation with us already or saw one of our shirts (which we’ll have at the LaborNotes Conference)!
Most grocery workers , and many other essential workers, start at a few bucks over min wage, which we all know isn’t enough to afford rent anywhere…
Starbucks Workers’ National Bargaining Table
The recently-formed Starbucks Workers United union secured a BIG win by setting the stage for a national bargaining table rather than allowing the corporate employer to divvy up differing contracts store-by-store or even state-by-state. For workers…