Spring 2018 • Meeting challenges of technology • Know your Union Representative • Local 1167 Scholarship Program • Reflections on Rosie the Riveter Cesar Chavez Day Good Friday Contents Union March 29, 30, 2018 offices Memorial Day President’s Report Union Representative’s Report closed: May 28, 2018 3 Meeting technology challenges 11 Maria Perez Independence Day What’s Happening News About Your Union July 4, 2018 4 Retirements, marriages, births 12 New Union Rep Ryan Parkman Rosie’s Corner Steward Profile Next Quarterly 5 Searching for Rosie the Riveter 13 Michel Ordonez Membership Meetings: Know Your Representative News About Your Union Wednesday, March 28, 2018 Store routes for all reps Meet the new Benefit Reps Wednesday, June 27, 2018 6 14 Meetings start at 7 p.m. Local 1167 Scholarship Your Union in Action New Member meetings 8 Deadline to apply is May 4, 2018! 15 1167 joins Women’s March held at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Industry News UFCW Local 1167 Auditorium Albertsons acquires Rite Aid ON THE COVER: 855 W. San Bernardino Ave. 10 Bloomington, CA 92316 Members at Vons in Big Bear DESERT EDGE Rick Bruer EW EMBER Editor MAP N M Official quarterly publication of MEETINGS Local 1167, United Food and Here to help Commercial Workers International Union MEMBERSHIP ASSISTANCE PROGRAM Are you a new member of Serving San Bernardino, Riverside and UFCW Local 1167? Has one of your Imperial Counties, California. If you have problems Health Management Center co-workers recently joined our union? Headquarters: any time, day or night, 855 W. San Bernardino Ave. with : Alcohol, drugs, Get up to a $65 credit toward your children & adolescents, 24 hours a day, Bloomington, CA 92316 initiation fee when you attend a family, emotional issues, seven days a week. Mailing address: New Member Orientation Meeting gambling, marriage All calls are confidential. P.O. Box 1167 within six months of your hire date. Bloomington, CA 92316 and/or financial/legal. Food Division Union offices are open Eligible active or retired call (800) 461-9179 Call (909) 877-5000 for dates, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. members can call the toll- Drug Division locations and answers to any questions. Closed Saturdays, Sundays and holidays free MAP number at the call (866) 268-2510 Business telephone: (909) 877-5000 Toll-free telephone: (800) 698-UFCW Notice to all members: Your dues are now payable! Food and Meat Division insurance: If you are one of the few members of the local who are NOT YET signed up for dues checkoff: YOUR DUES ARE NOW DUE (909) 877-1110 AND PAYABLE. IF YOUR DUES ARE NOT PAID ON OR BEFORE THE FIRST OF EVERY MONTH, YOU WILL AUTOMATICALLY SUS - Drug & General Sales Division insurance: PEND YOURSELF. (909) 877-2331 With dues checkoff, all future dues can be deducted automatically from your pay check. If you do not have an authorization Telephone hours: form, call the local and one will be sent to you immediately. 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Nonpayment or payment of the incorrect amount will automatically suspend you — a costly and inconvenient mistake. Although Published by not required, the local, as a courtesy, normally sends billing notices by first-class mail to those not on dues checkoff. It is the member’s obligation to pay dues in a timely manner. Not receiving a notice is not an excuse for failure to pay dues on time. www.ufcw1167.org Avoid suspension. Authorize dues checkoff today! 2 DESERT EDGE President’s Report RICK BRUER Meeting the challenges of technology echnology is transforming the gro - These changes can be dizzying for ob - come together to help the company, its cery industry, just as it is changing servers who look away for even a mo - customers and its union employees. almost everything else in our ment. The big question for union As time goes on, we expect customers world. It is up to us as union mem - members is how they will affect wages, will become more demanding and dis - bers to determine whether the outcomes benefits and working conditions. cerning as employers raise their standards Twill be positive or negative. The worst outcome would be layoffs in competing for customers’ dollars. Posing the latest challenge to the status and reduced hours for employees. The Meanwhile, unions will have an impor - quo, Kroger, owner of Ralphs and Food best outcome would involve educating tant role in maintaining and improving a 4 Less, announced plans to introduce its and training union workers to perform professional, quality-oriented work force Scan, Bag, Go technology at 400 stores that is capable of meeting those higher nationwide in 2018. standards. The program enables customers to Study after study shows shoppers will scan items as they shop, using either a continue to prefer human interactions, handheld scanner provided by the store or even when other alternatives are more a smartphone app. convenient. Initially, purchases will be made at a No robot delivery service can dupli - self-checkout register, but eventually cate the experience of chatting with the shoppers will be able to skip that step and produce clerks as they help us select our pay automatically through the app. The fruits and vegetables, and no app will re - technology also can notify customers place the checker who lives in our neigh - when they are near items that are on their borhood and grew up with our kids. There shopping lists. is no replacement for human interaction With the launch of Scan, Bag, Go, no matter how advanced the artificial in - Kroger has entered a race with Walmart telligence gets. and Amazon’s Whole Foods Markets for The employers learned a lesson about leadership in technological innovations employee-shopper relationships during that could add convenience for shoppers the supermarket strike and lockouts of while potentially saving money on labor 2003-2004, when the large majority of costs for retailers. customers refused to cross picket lines The new program is the latest in RICK BRUER walked by people they have grown to like Kroger’s ongoing efforts to save shoppers President and appreciate over the years. time through technology. The company new tasks to improve shoppers’ experi - We can’t stop change, but we can rolled out its ClickList service in late ences. channel it. Innovation can be a positive 2014, allowing customers to order gro - In a promising development, Stater force in our industry, as long as the needs ceries online and pick them up the same Bros. has partnered with instacart in a of working men and women are respected day, without having to go in the store. service that has union baggers bagging and protected. Safeway/Vons is doing the same thing the purchases. Union stockers also stock Fortunately, UFCW Local 1167 has a with its Online Shopping service. the items on the shelves and union check - strong record of protecting jobs while Tech firms like Google, Peapod, ers check them through Stater Bros.’ reg - working with employers to ensure that HelloFresh and Uber are also in the mix, isters. The company gets to use new technology makes our lives better, not providing “personal shoppers” who bring technologies to cater to its customers as worse. food from the supermarket to the doorstep. members continue to work their hours. It Our success depends on the solidarity Another company is experimenting with keeps everyone working and doesn’t take and activism of everyone in our union. self-driving vans that come to customers’ away any union hours or jobs. Get involved with your union and be part driveways, where they can select produce This is an example of embracing of the solution to meet the challenges of and other goods at their leisure. change as our union and the company the future. Spring 2018 3 What’s Happening IN MEMORIAM Stater Bros. Christine Morgan worked 14 years for Just Married Albertsons, Hughes, Lucky and Vons. Jovita Hernan - Roy Andrade, a retired meat cutter formerly employed by dez worked 12 years for Stater Bros. Mary (Moran) Keyfair, Boys Market, Fishers, Fazio’s and Ralphs, died on No - Susan McLeod , Stater Bros., marred Robbie McLeod Conti worked 10 years for Alpha Beta. vember 12, 2017 at the age of 95. He had been a continuous on Nov. 26, 2017 at the Calimesa Country Club. member since October 1956. Congratulations to all of our new retirees! We wish you Congratulations to our newlyweds! many healthy, happy years ahead to enjoy your well Virginia Arriaga, a general clerk employed by Food 4 Less, earned retirements. died on Nov. 29, 2017 at the age of 69. She had been a con - tinuous member since November 2005. Just Retired Philip Brown, a food clerk employed by Vons, died on Feb. 12, 2018 at the age of 61. He had been a member since Feb - The months of January, February and March, brought ruary 1978. us several new retirees. Michael Baldwin worked 46 years for Alpha Beta, Ralphs and Safeway. Bob Robert Cornwell, a retired meat cutter formerly employed Hawkins worked 46 years for Stater Bros. Juan by Safeway and Vons, died on Dec. 2, 2017 at the age of 74. Ramirez worked 45 years for Ralphs. Lori Johnston He had been a continuous member since October 1965. worked 44 years for Alpha Beta and Ralphs. Angela Patricia Decker, a retired food clerk formerly employed by Alvarez worked 46 years for Albertsons, Lucky and Vons, died on Dec. 16, 2017 at the age of 84. She had been Sav-on Drug. Gilbert Ramirez worked 42 years for a member since December 1961.