UPDATE: PCC members elect three newcomers to board, including 2 employees

4:01 PM TUESDAY: PCC Community Markets just announced the results of its membership vote on 3 board positions – a higher-profile vote than usual with two PCC employees running. They both were elected, according to PCC’s message to members, along with a third newcomer; all three getting more votes than the two current board members who were running for re-election. The new members are Laurae McIntyre, who works at the Fremont PCC; Donna Rasmussen, from the View Ridge PCC; and Rodney Hines, CEO of Metier Brewing Company The board members who did not win re-election were Catherine Walker, the board’s current chair, and Brad Brown, who served as PCC’s interim CEO for half of last year. PCC’s current CEO, Suzy Monford, drew ire for arguing against the city’s proposal to mandate hazard pay for most grocery workers, as reported here in January; two weeks later, the chain and its workers’ union UFCW Local 21 agreed on implementing it after all. The union supported the campaign of the two workers just elected to the board, including paid advertising on sites including WSB.

ADDED 10:20 AM WEDNESDAY: The vote totals are now online:

Hines – 9,397 votes
Rasmussen – 7,051 votes
McIntyre – 6,661 votes
Walker – 5,692 votes
Brown – 4,520 votes

WS98 May 4, 2021 (8:27 pm)

A warm welcome to our new board members! I’ve been a member for 20+ years and it is so great to finally see grass roots leadership on the board again AND diversity!! Congratulations Laurae, Donna and Rodney!

Jerry, grocery worker May 4, 2021 (9:28 pm)

Tee-hee.I don’t envy our employee Board members, but I’m really glad our customers stood with us on this Now, if only contract negotiations weren’t going so badly. The current offer on the table is $1.10 for journey over the next three years and no raises for apprentices. Also? PCC wants to create a new class of employees who’d run department and take on all that extra work and responsibility without specialist or coordinator pay, currently $3 and $4 an hour over journey. We’d need to see a huge spike in journey pay for that to happen. I am actually worried about a strike.

JC May 7, 2021 (9:09 am)

Jerry, thanks to the employees who stood outside in the cold during a pandemic to collect signatures on the petitions to get the employees on the ballots. I’m so glad for these election results. In the emails I received during the voting period, it was as if PCC made special effort to exclude information about the employee candidates. It’s nice to see that we members weren’t on auto-pilot as they seemed to hope we were.

Shufflerunner May 4, 2021 (10:18 pm)

Monford really came across badly in an interview on KUOW a week or so ago. When asked if she knew what the average wage was for a front line worker at their locations she didn’t know and got a bit belligerent with the interviewer. She should really take to hart that its the people at these stores that makes the difference and not the stuff. If you just want stuff without having to interact with someone that is what Amazon is for. I’m glad the board will have some perspective from the people they manage now.

DH May 5, 2021 (11:52 am)

Yes, I heard that interview and noticed the same thing about her response. I wouldn’t mind if she went back to Kroger or on to some other national chain. I have been a member at PCC for over 25 years for a reason. Congrats to the new board members, especially the employees!

MonfordMustGo May 5, 2021 (7:55 am)

If you are in a PCC at a quiet moment, ask the employees about Monford’s leadership. I was told by staff at the West Seattle location that Monford inadvertently copied employees on an email where she insulted all employees and then shortly thereafter took a public stand against hazard pay. All the while employees have kept PCC open through the pandemic while grocery stores post record profits. PCC has cultivated strong good will in our community for so many years and Monford has undermined this investment in just a few short months. Perhaps it’s time for new leadership. These board changes are a great start.

Jerry, grocery worker May 21, 2021 (6:55 am)

I have no way of knowing if anyone will read this, but I wanted to offer an update on our contract negotiations. I incorrectly conveyed PCC’s offer for journey raises. Over three years, they are offering 50 cents, not a dollar, with no raises for the apprentice scale and something like 15 cents for courtesy clerks, only in the Seattle stores. For perspective, in 2008, Journey wages were $18.65 an hour. Now, not including this $4 in hazard pay, they are only $20.30 an hour. This strains our employees so much. Forget having a family — just feeding ourselves is hard enough, and many of us cannot afford to shop at PCC. In addition, PCC wants HUGE concessions, like: striking “just cause” language from our contract so that they can fire us at will, giving up our rights to have employee representation on the Board of Trustees, and creating a new employee class that would mostly eliminate the extra pay that department lead, coordinators, and supervisors receive. Yes, PCC does pay the lion’s share of our health insurance. Last year, that brought $7,000 of value to my compensation package. That is really appreciated, as is having ample vacation time. BUT … this offer is insulting, and we are preparing to strike.

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