Higher Wages. Better Hours. Stronger Benefits.
Year after year, we've secured some of the strongest contracts in the nation. Next year, we're going to do it again.
Higher Wages in Retail
Our union has secured the strongest UFCW settlements in the nation. In 2018 and 2021, we won contracts with Kroger and Albertsons-Safeway that included the highest wage increases those companies have ever agreed to. In 2024, we raised the stakes with a week-long strike, followed by a national boycott that reached every Kroger store in the country and their customers in their homes. Once again, we signed the best contract in the nation, with major wage increases while maintaining our pensions for ourselves and future members, at a time when other unions are trading away members’ retirements. Then, at the end of last year, we delivered the best contract Idaho Albertsons members have ever seen, bringing first-day sick pay and fair scheduling to a state with no such protections in law. Now, with the cost of living skyrocketing, our families are counting on us to do it again. Next year, we will.
Better Hours
Workers across the industry are facing an hours crisis. We cannot support our families without consistent hours. Our union is prepared to fight for it. Last year, when our union took the fight to Roth's Fresh Markets in the Salem area, together, we secured a contract that most thought would be impossible. Members at Roth's now enjoy a contract with a guarantee of additional hours, time-and-a-half holiday pay, and the highest wages in the area. Now that we've proven we can do it at Roth's, we look forward to fighting for similar guarantees for all grocery members.
Higher Wages in Health Care
In 2023, when Kaiser refused to bargain in good faith in an attempt to shortchange the hardworking union members in pharmacy and imaging, our union fought back. After nearly two months of strikes in the bitter cold combined with a national media campaign, Local 555 and Kaiser signed a contract that led the nation in wage increases (by a lot!). Our settlement was larger than what the Alliance and the Coalition took home combined. When we negotiate a new contract next year, we're prepared to do even better.
Stronger Benefits
Workers deserve a healthcare and retirement plan they can rely on. Local 555 is proud to have one of the best healthcare plans in the state. For many, rising costs put their health care at risk, with millions of workers across the country expected to lose their health care next year. With our union benefits plan, not only can you expect reliable health care, but we expect to improve it at the bargaining table next year.
Dan
Members chose Dan to be president at a time when the Local was in turmoil. On day one, he took over a medical plan with only a few days of funding left and the pension plan was deeply underfunded. Instead of giving up, he went to work on fixing the problems others had ignored. Every year since he's negotiated stronger contracts that fund our health care and pensions while still delivering best-in-nation wage increases. Today our health plan has over four months of reserves and our pension plan is out of the red and in the green. He's served on every Unity Bargaining Committee, standing up for workers against some of the biggest corporations in the country, and winning. In the last year alone, our union has negotiated some of the strongest contracts in the nation, and we are growing stronger.
Dan Clay
Meet the Slate
President
Sandy Humphrey
Secretary-Treasurer
After working at Safeway in Forest Grove, Sandy joined staff at UFCW 555 in 1992. Since then, she's done just about every job there is to do at the Local, which means she knows how it works from the ground up. She’s protected the membership while serving in the Grievance Department, she’s held the Local together in Records, and led the staff as Director of Operations. Today she's the number-one financial hawk for the membership's money, making sure every dollar is spent to strengthen the Local, not wasted. She knows it’s important that the Local stays financially strong to win the next fight for our members and she’s experienced enough to know when a fight is coming.
Sandy
Susan Korenkov
Recorder
Susan led the charge in the Kaiser Permanente fight, and saw it through to the end. When Kaiser decided they didn't want to honor a contractual obligation to our members, Susan didn't let it slide. The union took them to arbitration and won. Kaiser then tried to get the decision thrown out in court, but Susan and her team beat them again. Those victories put millions of dollars back in our members' pockets, and it sent a message: when a corporation tries to short our members, we will fight them until they pay up.
Susan
The Executive Board
The Executive Board ensures all voices are heard and they hold the union’s pursestrings. As someone who lived and worked in Southern Oregon, Dan knew the impact of being overlooked and forgotten. That’s why he assembled an Executive Board that includes members from not just the Portland Area, but across the Union, including Southern Oregon, the Oregon Coast, and Idaho. Dan’s team represents and fights for members not just in retail, but in health care, food processing, and those who work at small employers. You deserve an Executive Board that represents you, because all workers deserve a voice at UFCW 555.
Run by members like YOU!
VP #15 - Verissa Ellis
Bay Area Hospital | Coos Bay, OR
VP #14 - Jeff White
UFCW 555 | Tigard, OR
VP #13 - Art Noriega
Rosauers | Hood River, OR
VP #12 - Dale Russell Cronin
Fred Meyer | Springfield, OR
VP #11 - Christine Frey
Safeway | Vancouver, WA
VP #10 - Joey Sorenson
Zenith | Portland, OR
VP #9 - Sterling Lowder
McCain Foods | Burley, ID
VP #8 - Ann Poff
UFCW 555 | Tigard, OR
VP #7 - Stacey Anderson
Kaiser | Portland, OR
VP #6 - Duane Babineau
Albertsons | Idaho Falls, ID
VP #5 - William Janes
Fred Meyer | Medford, OR
VP #4- Sarah Demerritt
Fred Meyer | Portland, OR
VP #3 - Alice Grassl
Safeway | Salem, OR
VP #2 - Michael John Alayon
Safeway | Bend, OR
VP #1 - Brandon Sweaney
Safeway | Forest Grove, OR
The Team Behind the Slate
Dan and Sandy don't run this local alone, and they'd be the first to say so. Their real strength is the team they've built. Mike Marshall negotiates most of our contracts, and he's been behind the best-in-the-nation settlements our local is famous for. Miles Eshaia and Sam Regas run national media campaigns that pressure billion-dollar corporations, while saving the Local hundreds of thousands of dollars by operating an in-house union print shop. Tony Giansiracusa's team in the grievance department have won more arbitrations and put more members back to work than anyone that’s come before him. Grace Korenkov led the team responsible for organizing over one thousand new members in previously non-union Fred Meyer departments in under a year. Every fight is backed by people who know how to win. That's what delivers strong contracts today, and what will keep delivering them.
Last Year:
Over 1,200
grievances resolved
$1.2 Million
recovered for members
Over 1,000
new members unionized
Together, we can keep Local 555 strong! Sign up for a reminder to vote
Look for your Union Election ballot in the mail after July 20th!
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