Essential Voice
an Essential Workers for Democracy newspaper to share with your coworkers!
Issue #7 - Summer 2026
Essential Voice: News for Essential Workers - Issue #3, Spring 2025
Essential Voice, Issue #3 - Spring 2025
The Nation: ‘Want a Better Grocery Store? Support Union Workers.’
Workers are on the front lines of an increasingly bleak shopping experience, and they bear the costs of understaffing, underinvestment in facilities, and feeble safety measures.
Workday: ‘How 9,000 Grocery Workers Are Banding Together in Minnesota’
Workers are in coordinated bargaining, and demanding better staffing, secure retirement, and good healthcare.
‘5 Years On, Front-Line Workers Still Grappling With COVID’s Impact’
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770 union and LAANE, have released the results of a survey probing the experiences of front-line essential grocery store and drug retail workers during that period and the lasting effects on them years later.
How Solidarity Helped Workers Win in Colorado: Essential Voice Strike Ready Edition #1
In February, 12,000 King Soopers (Kroger) grocery workers across Colorado went on strike for nearly two weeks with UFCW Local 7. In the end, they won a return to work agreement that allows them to align their contracts with the more than 100,000 grocery workers bargaining contracts across the country this year. Here’s how solidarity helped them do it.
Federal Judge Orders UFCW to Respond to Member Lawsuit for Fair Voting Rights
In April 2024, EW4D supported two rank and file members of the UFCW, Kyong Barry and Iris Scott, in filing a lawsuit in Federal Court. The lawsuit argues that the longstanding system of delegate apportionment to the UFCW International Convention is unfair and violates members’ rights. Now, the lawsuit is moving forward.
Workers Fired the Boss! Kroger and Albertsons CEOs Both Step Down Following Failed Merger
On March 3, 2025, CEOs of both Kroger and Albertsons abruptly stepped down. Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen suddenly resigned after an investigation into his personal conduct found he violated the company’s ethics policy, while Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran announced his retirement.
United We Bargain, United We’ll Win! 12,000 Member Strike Ends in Victory for Bargaining Big
In a historic victory for contract unity and big bargaining, the twelve-day strike against King Soopers (Kroger) has resulted in a return to the bargaining table with a 100 day extension. After nearly two weeks of 12,000 King Soopers workers shutting down 77 stores across Colorado with UFCW Local 7, workers have won the battle — and now, it’s time to win the war.
Sooper Strike Bulletin #7 - Mon., Feb. 17th, 2025
Coordinated bargaining increases workers’ power to win by getting rank and file members across different locals, or even across different unions, to take action together. Coordinated bargaining tells the boss that it doesn’t matter what union we’re in, we have each others’ backs.