A message from your UFCW 324 President Jose Perez
Brothers and sisters, I am Jose Perez, the recently elected president of your local, UFCW 324. I am honored to be your president, and I am ready to lead our union in fighting for the contracts that you deserve and bettering the lives of all working families.
I know that when workers come together, we can do the impossible. Recently, the last contract negotiations for the grocery stores, for Disney, for Food 4 Less, for CVS, and others, I have led our union in building and activating leaders, a key component in building power with our members.
I have been with UFCW 324 for 39 years in various roles from organizer to Leadership director. But I am still a courtesy clerk. I am still a meat clerk. I am still a shop steward. I am still a meat manager. And in this new position, I am still you. You are in the forefront of my mind as I am here representing you at the negotiating table, at City Hall and at your worksite.
I want to share some of my goals for UFCW 324 as your new president:
- Nothing comes before all of you, our members. You don’t deserve just access to us. You deserve the best from our union representatives, from our staff at the office, and of course, from myself. I commit to you that I, and everyone at UFCW 324, will give it 150% to get you the best jobs, the best contracts, the best legislation, and the best lives.
- I also commit to you that all of your hard earned money that comes in from your dues will be invested so that you get the best return. I understand that every dollar you make and bring home is to buy food for your children, a roof over your head or a car payment.
- I will make sure that we prioritize organizing to bring in new union members to this local, and as we grow in numbers, our power also grows.
- Lastly, I will make sure that all members are engaged and involved in every contract fight regardless of the industry. We are a union. We are UFCW 324, and the best way to get the best results is to make sure that every union member comes together to support each other. It doesn’t matter whose contract it is, when we come together, that’s power to fight back against the corporate greed we see every day. We had to send a strong and loud message to Kaiser this week by going our on a Unfair Labor Practice strike, and it was incredibly encouraging to see our Ralphs and Albertsons members on the picket line as well as CVS members. Sisters and brothers, that’s true power.
I am here to serve you. I work for you, and for 39 years, our members have seen my passion and my heart in making sure that you are represented to the best of my abilities. And that’s the reason why seven out of nine rank-and-file members on our executive board chose me to be the president. These are rank and file members from Ralphs, Food 4 Less, Albertsons, Disney, and CVS. They know who I am. They know what I’m about. They know my heart, and they know that I’m going to do the job that needs to be done to put you first.
In Solidarity,
Jose Perez
President, UFCW 324
