Shoppers may have noticed the dozens of PCC Community Market workers picketing the Edmonds store last month. – a protest that was repeated at four other PCC stores. The pickets have been ongoing throughout PCCs markets in the Seattle area since last year. The workers are represented in a union contract through the United Foods and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 3000, and that expired Dec. 31.

Coupled with high inflation that swept across the nation in the past three years, many PCC workers say they cannot afford to shop for groceries at their workplace while rent eats up more than half of their monthly income. 

Central kitchen supervisor – or person-in-charge (PIC) – Kori Rosset was one of the picketers in Edmonds who said that the PCC administration has met nearly all of the workers’ demands—except for a “meaningful wage increase.”

“The wage increase is the demand that PCC workers have been taking action and signing petitions for, ever since the $4 hazard pay was dropped,” she said. 

The Edmonds City Council in April 2021 approved Mayor Mike Nelson’s proposal to require Edmonds grocery stores to provide an extra $4 an hour in hazard pay for their employees. As pandemic restrictions began to lift, the council repealed that measure in August 2022.

“PCC administration’s offers for wage increase are honestly laughable, and don’t even cover the inflation that would happen within the two-year proposal time of the next contract, let alone the inflation that’s taken place since the pandemic,” Rosset said.

Grocery helper clerks, PCC’s entry-level position, currently start at $14.75 per hour outside of Seattle and cap out at $18.40. Rosset said that new workers need to have worked full-time for about five years (with a minimum of 10,400 hours) or get hired higher up on the wage scale before they reach the cap pay. Washington state’s minimum wage was $15.74 in 2023, which was increased to $16.28 on Jan. 1, 2024. 

“About half of the helper clerk wage scale is beneath the [state’s] minimum wage, which means for some that their wage essentially can’t ‘scale’ because their actual wage is below minimum wage,” said Rosset, who capped out at $23.10 as a clerk after more than seven years working at PCC. When she works as a PIC, her pay is $26.10 per hour.

“In all honesty, PICs like me are doing pretty well. It’s really the people on my crew that I’m fighting for,” she said.

The full pay scale can be seen on page 22 to 24 in the UFCW 3000 contract.

Rosset added that if the bargaining team and the administration do not come to a consensus by Jan. 23 and 24, UFCW 3000 will hold a strike authorization vote on Jan. 26. The union stated on its website that workers will be able to “review PCC’s most recent offer, vote to accept or reject the offer, as well as vote on whether to authorize a strike or not.” Furthermore, members of the bargaining team will be holding virtual meetings on Thursdays at 6 p.m., when they will discuss what a strike could be like, implementing a strike picket captain training, and having strike benefits.

Meanwhile, PCC said it is actively engaged in negotiations with UFCW 3000 for a new labor contract. “While we have not yet settled on a contract, despite active and committed participation by all concerned, we remain deeply committed to the best possible outcome for our employees that also keeps our co-op financially viable.” PCC CEO Krishnan “Krish” Srinivasan said in a statement. He said that while it is “disappointing” that neither party have concluded the bargaining, PCC is “pleased” to have many contract agreements that are acceptable from both parties. 

“As we proceed to the next phase in these discussions, we have added the expertise of a federal mediator to help both sides conclude this negotiation; it is a positive step that builds on the progress made to date,” Srinivasan said. “We appreciate UFCW Local 3000’s leadership team’s efforts and collaboration as our partner in this important task.”

In November 2023, the union unanimously voted “no” on PCC management’s last offer, which included  wage increases for all workers and changes to Board of Trustees language.

In 2022, PCC was operating at a loss of nearly $250,000. While their net sales have increased by 6% compared to 2021, their operating expenses have increased by 9%, including occupancy costs and hazard pay.

Part of the costs comes from the expansion of several new stores in the Greater Seattle Area. Union officials have stated that occupancy costs alone “represents about 70% of their entire deterioration in profitability” in 2022. Occupancy expenses have grown at a rate double that of labor costs since 2018. The downtown PCC office alone costs about $700,000 a year.

Rosset added that a strike would not benefit either party, especially in the long term. The only solution she sees is for PCC to follow through on the union’s wage-increase demands.

“If they don’t, they’re going to bleed legacy employees who can’t afford to stay, new employees won’t feel compensated for hard work so will settle happily for mediocre work,” she said. “And the quality of our products, which I truly believe in, will suffer overall. Will PCC – who rents a luxury office building on the Seattle waterfront – invest in the personal welfare of their store employees in the same way that they’ve invested in new stores, or will they take a gamble on a workforce that will almost certainly resent them, if they care at all?”

— By Nick Ng