Joining UFCW 1518 means you have the power of a union behind you when fighting for what you deserve. We fight for fairness together, ensuring you are treated with respect and dignity.
Joining UFCW 1518 means you have the power of a union behind you when fighting for what you deserve. We fight for fairness together, ensuring you are treated with respect and dignity.
Want to learn more about the steps to forming a union? Enter your email to receive our detailed guide.
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When you're in a union, you and your co-workers have greater control over how things are done in your workplace. If there's a change you want to see - to scheduling, pay. benefits or anything else - we can help you fight to win it.
As a union member, your rights will be set out in a legally enforceable contract. From your health benefits to the pay scale, your livelihood is more secure in a union.
Unions have been at the forefront of expanding workers' rights, from historic battles for weekends and the minimum wage to recent wins on paid sick leave and dental care. Union jobs set a high standard that lifts up everyone in your sector.
Apply to join using the form below or call us at 1-888-581-1518. We will get back to you as soon as possible to help you through the process of forming a union. Once you start the process of unionizing, your job is protected by the BC Labour Relations Board.
Working with staff from our union, you and your co-workers will sign support cards indicating that you want to join UFCW 1518. When enough of you sign a card, you will win your union! This process is confidential. Your employer will never have the right to know who did or did not sign. Your employer cannot legally take action against anyone for signing a card.
When 55% of workers in your workplace have signed a union card, the Labour Board will automatically certify a union at your workplace. After that, you will elect a Bargaining Committee to represent workers in negotiations for your new union contract!
You and your co-workers submit proposals for your new contract/collective agreement in your workplace. Your new contract will spell out wages, benefits, respect, job security and more. We will help guide you through the bargaining process.
Want to learn more about the organizing process? Enter your email to receive our detailed guide.
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Joining a union means that you are collectively represented in a contract between your fellow workers and your employer. UFCW 1518 already represents 28,000 workers at hundreds of different workplaces.
The collective strength offered by a union means more power to fight for improved contract conditions, including on benefits, job security, vacation, scheduling and other important issues.
Your union is able to support you in bargaining for this contract, as well as making sure the contract is followed, and helping you with any issues you may run into at work.
We represent 28,000 workers in a wide range of workplaces. If you shop at Save-On-Foods, Safeway, or FreshCo, you’re shopping at a UFCW 1518 store, while we also represent thousands of workers in the healthcare sector across BC.
We also represent workers in many private cannabis stores, as well as in the industrial food sector and commercial farms, where our members prepare meat, flour, mushrooms and other foods you might find on your dinner table!
Every employee in BC and the Yukon has a right to join a union, regardless of age, employer or immigration status. It is illegal to fire, threaten or otherwise punish an employee for attempting to form a union.
Management will never know who signed cards – the process is 100% confidential. We will never tolerate retaliation against workers who are in favour of unionizing.
Union dues for new units are no more than 2% of your wages and are 100% tax-deductible. You won’t pay one cent until you vote in your first collective agreement. No benefits, no dues.
If you have a good relationship, there’s no reason anything has to change – you can still deal directly with your manager, and the union only steps in when a worker requests help. Union workers have a stronger voice and more respect, ensuring that their concerns are heard and that bad management is discouraged.
A union contract isn’t one size fits all – we will fight to keep the benefits you have, and expand or introduce new benefits you want. For example, if you like your scheduling flexibility, we can fight to keep it.
Forming a union gives you as workers more control over what goes in your contract.
There are no union contracts requiring an employer to keep lazy or incompetent workers. We protect workers against unjust dismissals and arbitrary discipline.
Strikes are very rare. You have control over strikes through a vote – a majority of your co-workers must be in favour to launch a strike. If that happens, we will provide you with strike pay.
It is illegal to close a workplace because the employees decide to join a union. No successful business will shut down because the workers decide to organize.
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Education
Member Resource Centre
Member Recognition Program
Members’ Emergency Fund
File a Grievance
Our office is located on traditional Indigenous
territory belonging to the Qayqayt First Nation
350 Columbia Street, New Westminster, BC V3L 1A6
reception@UFCW1518.com
Toll-Free: 1.800.661.3708 • 604.526.1518
Fax: 604.540.1520