Author: zac@romanelli.com

Wild By Nature Ratifies Contract

We are pleased to announce that on Friday June 18th, the members of Wild By Nature overwhelmingly ratified their new contract! After weeks of difficult negotiations, Local 1500 members of Wild By Nature voted on the tentative agreement reached earlier last week. We applaud the membership in these stores for approving their contract. Congratulations to the Wild By Nature members on your new contract and thank you for your support and patience throughout the bargaining process!

 

Have Questions About COVID-19 or the Vaccine?

Do you have questions about COVID-19 or the vaccine? If yes, please join the UFCW’s educational Q&A series to get answers to your questions on May 27, 2021 at 6 p.m. ET on facebook.com/ufcwinternational

The Excelsior Scholarship

The Excelsior Scholarship, in combination with other student financial aid programs, allows students to attend a SUNY or CUNY college tuition-free. The program covers tuition for eligible SUNY and CUNY students. For the 2021-22 academic year, families who earned $125,000 or less in the tax year 2019 are eligible to apply. You can apply at www.hesc.ny.gov

 

 

Contract Proposal Submission

Dear Wild By Nature member,
 
Typically leading up to contract negotiations, we would hold Proposal Meetings with the membership. Those meetings give you a chance to tell us what you would like to see added to, or changed in, your new contract. This has always been the place where you made sure your voice was heard and where we made sure that any concerns you could have are properly recorded and then relayed to your company. 
 
Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, we cannot currently hold mass meetings. With a group your size it would be very difficult to provide the proper socially distant environment. However, your voice still needs to be heard!
 
Please email us what you would like to see improved, or added to, your new contract.
Both your Union and your company need to hear what you are thinking! 
 
Email address: MyContract@UFCW1500.org
 
We will consolidate all of your proposals and submit them to you company. We will let you know when (and how) they respond to your proposals and as always keep you updated on how negotiations are progressing.

 

Thank you for your time, your involvement in this process and most of all for your membership in your Union! Please continue to work smart and stay safe

IMPORTANT A&P BANKRUPTCY UPDATE

Attention former A&P, Waldbaum, Pathmark, and Food Emporium employees. A&P and various parties, including the UFCW and UFCW local unions, are discussing how to bring an end to the A&P Bankruptcy and provide for some distribution on relevant employee and other administrative claims, which are claims that were earned after the bankruptcy filing. It is important that A&P have your current mailing address if your address has changed since the bankruptcy. If your mailing address has changed since 2015, please provide your old mailing address, new mailing address, the location of the last A&P/Food Emporium/Pathmark/Waldbaum’s store where you worked, and the local union which represented you, to claimsadmin@apteaestate.com . If you still have your A&P employee number please provide that as well. We will report on future developments.

***IMPORTANT COVID-19 VACCINE INFORMATION***

Attention Local 1500 members,

We have been working hard to get our essential members access to the Covid-19 vaccine.  So far we have been successful working with the Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone’s office.  As of today they have up to 128 doses available for Local 1500 members this week. Please see the following requirements:

1. You are a current member of Local 1500.
2. You live or work in Suffolk County.
3. You are available this Thursday (2/4) and Friday (2/5) between 4pm and 6pm.

If you are eligible based on all three points above, you must email stopthevirus@ufcw1500.org to request an appointment. You must provide your full name, store name and number where you work, and a phone number where you can be reached directly with appointment information. If we are unable to reach you we will have to reach out to the next member on the list.  These limited number of appointments will be on a first-come first-served basis and will come to us without any real structure.  Please be advised that we will be putting out emails like this every time we have doses made available to our members so that we can help guide you through the process.

You should be aware that we have been working with all municipalities throughout our jurisdiction, either directly or indirectly, to seek available Covid-19 vaccines for our members.  For today it is in Suffolk County, but hopefully this will grow in the coming days and weeks.  As soon as we have any other information about available vaccines anywhere we will let you know.

Stay safe and healthy!