Angela Holmes and Katrina Keffer: Want a better life at work? Get a union

We have worked in health care and grocery stores for more than 24 years serving the people of Spokane. We are both union women who have been active in winning improved contracts with higher wages and better benefits for ourselves and our co-workers. When we improve our hospital, and our grocery store, it helps out everyone in the community. And while there is certainly a long way to go to get the respect, pay and staffing levels that we and our co-workers deserve, the situation is far better because we are in a union. That difference of having a union is the difference of having a voice.

You see, while a vast majority of Americans believe workers should have a union at work if they want one, 9 of 10 Americans don’t have one. That is a major reason for a decline in the standard of living in our country. As fewer and fewer workers are in unions, employers increasingly push to reduce workplace benefits and pay. Today, few workers in the private sector have a pension after a lifetime of work. Likewise, few workers in the private sector know when their next raise will come, nor do they have job security that prevents the employer from being able to fire you for no reason. Private-sector union workers like us have all these protections and much more. So can you.

To be sure, there are obstacles for those of you who would like to have a union at work. There is likely the fear and intimidation that anti-union employers create. There are weak safeguards in our national worker protection laws. There are lies told about unions by employers who would prefer you don’t have one. Why would an employer really care if you have a union at work or not? Simple. Without a union, the employer has ALL the power. When the workers have a union in their workplace, employers have to share power. They don’t want to do that.

Most of us work too hard and get paid too little. Workplaces are facing a staffing crisis resulting from management having too few staff being told to each do the work of two or three. Instead, they should hire more people, give everyone who is already on staff who wants more hours additional time, and pay people more. But that would dip into their profits, and they don’t like that. While there are clearly still problems like these at union workplaces, at least we have a way to address our complaints. We can and do stand up to our bosses and have the support of co-workers and protection from discipline because we have a strong union. That is essentially what having a union is all about – never being alone.

While we work in different fields, both of our jobs are centered around serving people. Whether as an operating room surgical technologist at Sacred Heart Medical Center or as a receiving clerk at Fred Meyer, we work hard to take care of our patients and customers. But we can’t do our jobs well and can’t work together as a team with the rest of our co-workers to serve all of you, when our workplaces are chronically and inadequately staffed. Low staff doesn’t work for anyone.

Again, as a union, we can take action. Our union was one of the national leaders that helped block Kroger’s $24 Billion Mega Merger with Albertsons. That merger would have caused layoffs, closed stores and higher prices. But we stood up and got that merger blocked in the courts. And our union was a leader with other unions to pass a new state staffing law in health care that is beginning to have some impact on addressing the crisis. There is a lot more to do.

We both live in the greater Spokane area. We are your neighbors. If you are interested in having higher pay, if you are interested in better benefits, if you want protection from corporate greed and intimidating bosses and unfair discipline, call the union. We won’t say it will be easy, but if you are having serious problems and you and some co-workers are willing to roll up your sleeves and dedicate yourself to making things different, you can get a union going at your workplace, too. You can reach out to us online at ufcw3000.org or another union that may better fit your type of job.

Angela Holmes is a surgical technologist at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Katrina Keffer is a receiving clerk at a Spokane Fred Meyer. Both are leaders in the UFCW 3000 and have been on their workplace union member negotiating teams to bargain for better contracts. UFCW 3000 is the state’s largest private sector union with over 50,000 members in grocery stores, health care, retail, cannabis, food processing and other industries.