Workers at MOM’s Organic Market in College Park unionized in December 2022. Every worker at College Park MOM’s who is not a manager is a member of the union.

So what is a union?

A union is a proven way to make your job better. When you have a union, you and your coworkers get to have a say in your wages, schedule, vacation policy, retirement plan, store safety, and anything else that impacts your life at work.

As an employee at MOM’s Organic Market in College Park, you are a member of United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 Union. Our members work in grocery and retail stores such as Giant Food, Safeway, Shoppers, Macy’s, CVS, and more. We also represent nurses at Kaiser Permanente, booksellers at Politics and Prose and Solid State Books, farmers market workers at FRESHFARM, meatpacking workers, and more.

UFCW Local 400 is part of the United Food and Commercial Workers, an international labor union made up of 1.3 million hard-working men and women in the U.S. and Canada.

We believe hard work should be rewarded with a better life, and that no one should have to struggle alone. With our collective strength, we do this by:

• Winning strong contracts
• Representing individual members when problems arise
• Protecting you from bosses who violate your rights
• Supporting political legislation that protects workers’ interests and fighting corporate-funded attacks
• Organizing together for dignity and respect on the job

No matter your questions, we’re here to answer them and serve you.

A union contract, or collective bargaining agreement, is a document that guarantees your wages, benefits, and working conditions at MOM’s. Once you have a union contract in place, your employer cannot take away your benefits for the life of the agreement. For example, our union contract guarantees that every worker at MOM’s College Park gets a raise every year. Without a contract, MOM’s can play favorites and only give raises to people they choose.

A union contract also places strict rules on MOM’s management, such as how they can treat you, make your schedule, and provide benefits. Without a union contract, MOM’s can take away anything from you at any time.

See below for an explanation of what’s in your contract. And as always, no matter your questions, we’re here to answer them and serve you.

With the union contract, you get a guaranteed raise every year that cannot be denied or taken away by management. The annual hourly raises are 50 cents in the first year, followed by 3% in the second and third year. In addition, we won a $4 hourly raise for hours worked on Saturdays and Sundays.

Your contract guarantees minimum annual raises and prohibits MOM’s from reducing your pay or taking away any of your benefits in the future. But MOM’s can always decide to give you more money. Under your contract, if you do not receive a higher raise, it is because management decided not to give you one, not your union. We will never stand in the way of you making more money.

Right now, it’s completely up to management to decide how many hours you get each week. MOM’s can even cut your hours at any time and there’s nothing you can do about it.

But with the union contract, you are guaranteed a minimum number of hours each week based on your availability:

The contract ensures management must post your schedule at least two weeks in advance so you can plan your life.

A grievance procedure is how you hold management accountable to follow your contract.

A union contract protects you by placing rules on management. Right now, the rules only apply to you and you can’t hold the boss accountable for anything.

But with a union contract, management must follow the rules laid out in the contract. If they don’t, the grievance procedure guarantees you due process if management violates your contract, including if they unfairly punish you or fire you.

Without a union contract and a grievance procedure, it’s entirely up to management what happens to you and you have no recourse to fight back.

Just Cause is one of the most important parts of a union contract. It protects you from bosses who unfairly punish you without a good reason. Without just cause, MOM’s can discipline you or even fire you for almost any reason. But with just cause protections in your union contract, they have to prove you did something wrong and prove they’re treating you equally the same as everyone else. If they can’t prove it, then they can’t punish you.

Learn more about how Just Cause protects you from unfair punishment.

The union contract establishes a joint labor-management committee that requires MOM’s to meet with workers to discuss improvements to the workplace on any issue that’s important to workers in the store. If something comes up that the contract doesn’t cover, the issue can be addressed through the Joint Labor-Management Committee.

Under the union contract, management cannot discriminate against you. Without these provisions, you would have to go through the trouble of hiring an expensive lawyer and probably filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – all while trying to find a new job. But with your union contract, we can file a grievance and resolve the issue much faster at no cost to you.