UFCW 3000, the biggest private-sector union in the state representing 56,000 grocery, cannabis, and retail workers, gave its sole endorsement to Katie Wilson for mayor at a press conference outside the Fred Meyer in Lake City Tuesday afternoon.
UFCW 3000 held off on endorsing in the primary, but an announcement from Kroger, the chain’s parent company, to close this store and three others over “low sales” appears to have pushed them into the race. When this store closes, Lake City will lose its one full-service grocery store and become a food desert.
Three of those four stores are in low income communities. According to UFCW 3000, these closures mean the loss of over 700 jobs. These are also just the latest regional closures from Kroger. In July, the big bad grocery kingpin put a Tacoma Fred Meyer and a Mill Creek QFC on the chopping block.
“Kroger’s closures put profit over people, plain and simple,” UCFW 3000 President Faye Guenther said in a press release. The closures will influence the union’s negotiations with Kroger in the future, but “in the meantime, our union strongly encourages elected leaders to prioritize policies that increase access to fresh, affordable food for all.”
On a busy street corner outside of the Lake City Fred Meyer (one of the “struggling” Kroger stores that had a packed parking lot in the middle of the day on a Tuesday), UFCW 3000’s Joe Mizrahi (who The Stranger endorsed for Seattle School Board earlier this year) said Katie Wilson has earned the union’s endorsement “because she shares our goals and our vision of living in a city where people can afford to live near where they work, where they can afford groceries and afford to pay rent.” He specifically shouted out her plans to push for tax code reform that takes the burden from the shoulders of working class people and puts it on wealthy corporations like Kroger.
At a podium in front of a group of UFCW 3000 members, Wilson called out City Hall for failing to invest in neighborhoods like Lake City, and called the Kroger closures what they are: corporate greed.
“We desperately need creative, effective local leadership to take on these challenges,” she said. “As mayor, I’m excited to step up with UFCW and explore public option grocery stores” to fill gaps created by food deserts. “We will pair full-service groceries with workforce housing,” she continued, and “lay the foundation for food security with grocery oriented development zones.” She called them “GODZ,” which we don’t expect to stick.
When asked if she was taking inspiration from NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposals to develop public grocery stores in New York, Wilson pointed out that this isn’t a new idea, nor a “pie-in-the-sky” proposal. Military bases already offer a public option for groceries, she said. And while she thinks it’s “inspiring” that proposals are popping up across the country, she emphasized that a blueprint for New York wouldn’t fit Seattle. “We’re going to develop a proposal that’s suited to Seattle’s conditions.”
UFCW 3000’s endorsement shows that, in spite of the narrative earlier in this campaign season, Wilson has labor’s support.
Before the primary election, MLK Labor—the central body of labor unions in King County and a big player in local politics—threw its support behind Bruce Harrell. The whispers started: Wilson isn’t backed by labor. But, then Protec17, the union for city workers, turned on its boss and endorsed Wilson.
Additionally, Protec17 cemented its support for Wilson with a new progressive PAC, Katie Wilson for an Affordable Seattle. According to PAC organizers, the PAC will be the vehicle for the union’s financial support of Wilson.
Now, after Harrell’s terrible primary showing, rumor has it that MLK Labor (which UFCW 3000 votes in) will soon vote toswitch its sole Harrell endorsement to a dual Harrell and Wilson endorsement. Whatever happens, Wilson appears to be building momentum. Harrell? Not so much.
