Best contract ever for Cannery Council
July 25, 2018
With an approval rate of nearly 90%, about 12,500 members of Local 601 and Local 948 who are part of the Cannery Council ratified their new three-year contract in July.
“These were the toughest negotiations that I’ve faced,” says Local 601 Principal Officer Ashley Alvarado, who led the bargaining. “We were negotiating with all new people who do not yet have a relationship with the Cannery Council or the workers.”
Nevertheless, “we were successful in negotiating the best CPI contract ever,” Alvarado adds. “Not only did we stave off all of the takeaways that the employers had proposed, we increased wages and benefits by 10.3%. This was only possible because the workers were united. That’s where our strength is.”
“In these tough times, when we face so many efforts in corporate America to dissolve unions, it makes me proud to see the people coming together and becoming more engaged with the union,” Alvarado says. “My goal is to keep watching the bar go up and getting better contracts every time.”
