• A Living Wage - Currently defined at $27.04 for Multnomah County. Adjust current wages and pay scales accordingly. 
  
  
• Cost of Living Adjustment - We demand a COLA linked to the consumer price index to keep us from falling behind. Up to 5% annually.
  
  
• Profit Sharing: Bring back 20% profit sharing. 
  
  
• Hourly Premiums for overnights, Sundays, and senior Wednesday of $5/hr

No first offer - NSM states they will give a first offer on November 7th.

• Increased PTO: We deserve at least an extra week of PTO.
  
  
• Allow part-time leads as was previously allowed based on business needs.
  
  
• Allow seated cashiering
  
  
• Increase Paid Holidays
  
  
• Fair Scheduling

• No offer on PTO
  
  
• Rejects part-time lead proposal
  
  
• Concedes allowing cashiers to work seated
  
  
• No offer on Holidays

• Consider circumstances and excuse events legitimately outside of our control.
  
  
• 10 minute grace period for tardies, up from 5.
  
  

• Ignore circumstances and fire us for events outside of our control.
  
  
• Concedes 10-min grace period.

New Seasons wants extensive, specific "management rights" in the contract. Management rights refer to areas in which union members waive their existing legal right to bargain over changes while the contract is in force.

A specific management rights article disarms union members in the event of unforeseen changes to technology, industry, and business trends. Agreeing to a specific and extensive management rights article prevents members from bargaining over many changes during the contract term, potentially costing jobs.

The bargaining committee wants a nonspecific management rights clause. Nonspecific clauses grant more bargaining rights to union members in many circumstances, depending primarily on whether the NLRB (the government agency that enforces collective bargaining rights) is controlled by Democratic or Republican appointees.

Part of the contract that we need is an article protecting status-quo working conditions from company changes. Without any contract, we have the right to bargain and strike over changes to status-quo conditions. However, the bargaining team has tentatively agreed to waive our right to strike for the duration of the contract in exchange for binding arbitration between us and NSM.

Our existing conditions article will allow us the ability to bargain changes to the status quo, despite the loss of our strike threat, and see working conditions changed only by mutual agreement between us and the company.

We need an article in our contract that defines what work is reserved for NSLU members, to prevent the company from outsourcing our jobs to other firms, or non-union job classifications.

Without this article, NSM can evade the rest of the contract by replacing us with non-union workers, making our other contract wins irrelevant.

New Seasons refuses to give a counter-offer on an article outlining the company's responsibility for taking care of sexual and identity-based harassment from customers.

The company stated they would not present a counter offer until we provide them with the personally identifying information of members who have reported harassment to the bargaining committee.

We have won "just cause" rules for discipline and discharge. These rules mean that NSM's disciplinary decisions will be held to an independent legal standard and can be reversed if they violate it. This means better job security for NSLU members.

Just cause is usually determined by seven tests, copied here from the website of the United Electrical union:

1. Fair Notice

An employer may not discipline an employee for violating a rule or standard whose nature and penalties have not been made known.

2. Prior Enforcement

An employee may not be penalized for violating a rule or standard that the employer has failed to enforce for a prolonged period.

3. Due Process

An employer must conduct an interview or a hearing before issuing discipline, and must take action promptly. Once assessed, discipline may not be increased.

4. Substantial Evidence

Charges must be proven by substantial and credible evidence.

5. Equal Treatment

Unless a valid distinction justifies a higher penalty, an employer may not assess a considerably stronger punishment against one employee than it assessed against another known to have committed the same or a substantially similar offense.

6. Progressive Discipline

When responding to misconduct that is short of egregious (very serious), an employer must issue at least one level of discipline that allows the employee an opportunity to improve.

7. Mitigating and Extenuating Circumstances

Discipline must be proportional to the gravity of the offense, taking into account any mitigating, extenuating, or aggravating circumstances.

We have won a grievance arbitration process that will allow us to enforce our contract rights.

If New Seasons violates the contract, members can file grievances that require a response from the company. 

If we find that the company's response doesn't fix the harm caused by the contract violation, we can take them to a neutral arbitrator who can impose penalties against the company. and award remedies to members.

We have won the right for cashiers to perform their work while seated. New Seasons agreed to provide up to 8 seats per store for cash registers. Use will be based on cashier preference.

Shop stewards are coworkers who have accepted the responsibility of defending their coworkers in disciplinary meetings and of enforcing our contract wins against the company.

We were able to win contract language that allows us to bring shop stewards or other coworkers into non-disciplinary meetings, such as for our ADA accommodations,

This is above and beyond the right to have our shop stewards defend us in disciplinary meetings.

We have won a union security article that will require our coworkers to join our union within 31 days of hire to work at union shops (or pay an agency fee). This ensures the long-term unity of NSM workers and the stability of our democratic organization.

This is not a sexy article, but it's extremely important for our ability to advocate for each other and enforce our contract in the long term.

We won a non-discrimination commitment that can be enforced through the grievance process. This means that discrimination issues can be handled without a private lawsuit or government enforcement, which can be faster and less financially risky for members.

We tried very hard to get NSM to agree not to discriminate unfairly based on housing status, but were unable to win the concession.

We won a health and safety commitment that can be enforced through the grievance process.

We won seniority rights for layoff and recall.  In the event of a layoff, we will be placed on a recall list and re-hired as jobs become available before NSM may hire new staff.

We wanted much more extensive seniority rights in the first contract, but were not able to reach agreement. We hope to gain more rights in this area in future contracts.