Voting and Elections
UFCW voters matter for California.
Safe Prescriptions
UFCW is working to ensure pharmacists have the support to do their most important job: delivering the right medicines, in the right doses and protecting consumers against potentially deadly drug interactions.
Cannabis
The UFCW is the only union representing cannabis workers in California. We are committed to building a successful industry that offers consumers access to safe products and local communities jobs with better wages and benefits.
Sacramento, CA – The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Western States Council today released the following statement from Andrea Zinder, president, UFCW Western States Council and UFCW Local 324, in response to Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget for 2022-2023:
“The 180,000 UFCW members in California applaud Governor Newsom’s proposed 2022-2023 California Budget, which recognizes that California is at its best when we invest in the social safety net, providing health care, housing and more to working Californians. Workers who are the backbone of our great state’s economy, and have taken an inordinate amount of risk over the past two years ensuring Californians remain healthy and fed during the pandemic, need ongoing support from the state, and this proposed budget is a good start.
“We’re glad the Governor has committed to providing pathways to quality jobs. This critical assistance for low-wage workers, most of whom are women and people of color, is sorely needed and will help ensure our workforce are positioned not just to propel our economy forward, but enable their families to thrive. Our workers know that when California is able to sustain good quality jobs, workers and their families can begin to overcome the inequality laid bare these past years.
“Frontline UFCW workers continue to provide essential services and continue to face unacceptable risks to themselves and their families that must be mitigated. Workers currently have no safety net if they are exposed or sick with COVID-19 just as the virus is breaking new records. We need an immediate extension of two weeks of supplemental paid sick leave as a public health imperative, not to mention the right thing to do, so workers can stay home when they or a family member gets sick, if their child’s school closes, or to get vaccinated.
“Lastly, we’re pleased that Governor Newsom’s California’s Blueprint includes support for cannabis tax reform. We will be working closely with the Administration to ensure this money goes back to cannabis workers to increase their standard of living.
“In 2022, we look forward to working with the Governor and the Administration to ensure California’s budget reflects the needs of our members and ensures they are protected and can build upon the successes our state has had in the past two years.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2022
Contact: Jenna Thompson, 949.246.1620, [email protected]
Sacramento, CA – The 180,000 essential worker members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Western States Council in California today applauded the announcement of Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez taking over for Art Pulaski as Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation in July 2022.
“California’s working people are more diverse than ever. Women and people of color are the future of work and no one knows that better than Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez,” said Andrea Zinder, president, UFCW Western States Council and UFCW Local 324. “Lorena is as fearless as she is smart and deft in crafting policy. She’s faced down cancer and major corporations alike. With the heart of an organizer and the experience of a leader, we know she will help grow an effective, energized, multi-racial coalition rooted in the concerns and priorities of working communities.”
“As California faces hard elections in 2022, 2024 and 2026 fraught with right-wing extremists and billionaires who want to undermine our state’s democracy and roll back hard-won workers’ rights, workplace safety protections and environmental safeguards, action on climate change, and much more, Lorena is a leader who can harness the power of working people to fight back with everything we’ve got,” said Amber Baur, executive director, UFCW Western States Council. “Lorena Gonzalez’s leadership will help ensure workers and our families are the center of California’s recovery and create a stronger California for our children.
“We also want to applaud brother Art Pulaski’s years of leadership, under which the labor movement has secured essential victories for California’s working families including increased pay, critical protections like paid sick leave and paid family leave, public education funding, child care and homecare, the right to form unions and so much more.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 3, 2022
CONTACT: Jenna Thompson, 949.246.1620, [email protected]
Sacramento, CA – Today, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Western States Council released their 2020-2021 Year in Review and 2021 California Legislative Scorecard, which evaluates how legislators voted on issues important to UFCW members in the past legislative session. Crucial policies that promote workplace safety, advance workers’ rights, professionalize the cannabis industry, and protect our communities’ health were among the key issues considered as UFCW evaluated California’s elected official’s legislative voting records.
Demonstrating the effectiveness of UFCW members in communicating their values and priorities, 70 legislators scored 100% on issues important to California’s workers. See each legislator’s scores here: ufcwwest.org/scorecard.
Amber Baur, executive director, UFCW Western States Council, released the following statement:
“Grocery work, meatpacking, and delivering goods were never meant to be death-defying jobs, but they became so in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was these workers’ very survival – and their families’ future — that UFCW Western States Council has been fighting for over the past two years. We worked tirelessly with our locals, the Governor, and elected officials statewide and locally to give our members — and all California workers — a fighting chance against the COVID-19 crisis and strengthen the critical benefits and protections they need to do their jobs while remaining healthy and safe.
“When legislators look at this scorecard as they return to Sacramento to start a new legislative year today, I hope they will take to heart how their decisions affect workers across California and work to ensure they receive the critical benefits and protections they need to do their job while remaining healthy and safe.
“As the past two years have shown, California’s workers need safer worksites and stronger enforcement of health and safety laws. They need hazard pay, exclusion pay and supplemental paid sick leave so they can continue to provide essential services without jeopardizing the lives and health of themselves and their families. California’s workers deserve standards of living increases like higher wages and increased healthcare and pension benefits, especially in the cannabis industry, and industries known to exploit workers, like Amazon and alcohol delivery services, need increased regulation.
“In 2022, UFCW will continue to work closely with the Administration, legislators, and local leaders to continue to ensure our members are protected and can build upon the successes we’ve had in the past two years.”
See how each legislator scored here: ufcwwest.org/scorecard.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 3, 2022
Contact: Jenna Thompson, 949.246.1620, [email protected]