Tag: Labor

Monthly Round-Up – April 2026
This article is written by a DSA member and does not formally represent the views of MADSA as a whole or its subgroups.

Welcome to Vol. 9 of the monthly round-up! The content in this publication overlaps with our DSA newsletter and monthly General Membership Meetings. To sign up for the newsletter or check out an upcoming General Membership Meeting, visit: https://madison-dsa.org/events/

Members Work Towards A May Day Success

Photo from The Capitol Times, featuring Voces De La Frontera.

MADSA members tabling at the Library Mall rally.

Throughout the start of 2026, and especially in April, MADSA worked towards supporting a major economic blackout on May Day, with the goal of “No Work, No School, No Shopping!”. MADSA members planned a community pancake breakfast, wrote rally speeches, created signage, liaised with unions, attended coalition events and worker assemblies, and held many conversations with coworkers and loved ones around shutting down their workplaces in support of the historic day.

May Day is International Workers’ Day, and in Wisconsin, it is also A Day Without Immigrants, organized for years by Voces de La Frontera. This year, Voces led the day with key demands around rights for immigrant workers and a just economy for all. MADSA supported by hosting a successful community pancake breakfast in the morning, and collecting over $2,000 in donations towards Voces’ work. Next, at 11am, there was a rally by UW staff and students, which joined up with a 12pm rally at Library Mall. At 1pm, the rally marched to the Capitol, where the crowd heard speeches and music organized by Voces and their allies. In a huge win, Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI) was successfully able to preemptively shut down Madison Metropolitan and Sun Prairie school districts by collecting enough signatures from staff pledging not to work on May 1. Students and teachers from West and East High Schools marched to the capitol during the day to join up with the main rally.

The day saw roughly 3,000 attendees in Madison, with participation from MADSA, UW-Madison’s YDSA, a variety of socialist and communist organizations, and many unions in the area. Milwaukee also had a huge day of action, and gubernatorial candidate Fran Hong made stops to both cities.

May Day 2026 reflected a sense of shared struggle and power among working class people, explicitly connecting with the long history of labor battles in the U.S. and around the world. As MADSA and other organizations continue to grow, workers will hopefully build towards a larger economic shutdown on May Day 2027, and eventually develop the solidarity and power required for a general strike.
MADSA members march up State St to the Capitol.
Community members at the pancake breakfast listen to local speakers.
For more May Day coverage, Voces de La Frontera’s Facebook page and Instagram have many photos and videos of actions all over Wisconsin.

MADSA Approves a New Office Space

On April 26th, MADSA called a meeting to discuss the chapter’s need for a larger office to accommodate our growth in members and resources. Members held a small potluck, and formally approved a proposal to rent a larger office space, which also grants consistent access to a meeting space for our large monthly general membership meetings. More details will be shared once this is finalized!

Members also reflected on the chapter’s relationship with the Social Justice Center, where MADSA currently rents a small amount of space. Members voted to continue renting the space, as part of our desire to maintain a positive and supportive relationship with the SJC.

Canvassing & Tabling for Endorsed Candidates

Members and other volunteers have begun canvassing for Fran Hong and Juliana Bennett’s campaigns. There are opportunities to canvass in several Madison neighborhoods, as well as tabling at the Farmer’s Market each week. Juliana’s campaign will be having a weekend of canvass action on May 23 and 24. Sign up here!

ICE Out Work Continues

MADSA continues to coordinate information about trainings and events, and neighborhood group chats, via the Strike Out ICE hub, here.

Additional Organizing

Other important efforts this month included the following:
- MADSA had its first AfroSocialists/Socialists of Color Coffee Hangout at Qamaria Yemeni Coffee.
- In the lead-up to May 1st, MADSA members showed up to the May Day Strong Solidarity School focusing on organizing tactics, as well as two Madison Worker Assemblies and a coalition meeting for event planning.
- NoAppetiteForApartheid (NA4A) had a planning meeting for a summer film event.
- The Comms Committee put on its first skills training, with the goal of building comms skills among chapter members. A comrade taught some key principles of graphic design.
- MADSA had a Powerpoint to the People event where members could share socialist education through short presentations.
- MADSA continues to prepare for the Queer Liberation March, scheduled for June 13th.
- Southern Dane County Branch had their monthly meeting on 4/29.
Social Events

We continue hosting recurring social events. Currently, we have DSA 101, MADSA Run Club, and the Rosebuddies program on the calendar. May also features a board game night planned for 5/4, and a new reading club for Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed starting Sunday 5/30.

Protest Song of the Month

In honor of the Day Without Immigrants and Voces’ organizing role in our community, I’ll be featuring two songs this month.

First, a lament – ICE, El Hielo by La Santa Cecilia, heard here. The music video features several actors who are living in the US as undocumented workers. The song tells of three workers contributing to the economy while living under the oppressive fear and restrictions that come with being undocumented.

Next, for something higher energy – La Cumbia De La Migra by Los Jornaleros del Norte, a protest band proudly consisting of day-laborers. This song is ICE Out in purest form!

And that concludes our monthly round-up!
May 2, 2026
Monthly Round-Up – March 2026
This article is written by a DSA member and does not formally represent the views of MADSA as a whole or its subgroups.

Welcome to Vol. 8 of the monthly round-up! The content in this publication overlaps significantly with our DSA newsletter and monthly General Membership Meetings. To sign up for the newsletter or check out an upcoming General Membership Meeting, visit: https://madison-dsa.org/events/

MADSA Annual Convention a Success

The chapter held our annual convention on the evening of Friday March 20th and the full day of Saturday, March 21st. MADSA members elected new leadership for the coming year, voted to continue many working groups, and debated and passed resolutions that will shape how the chapter does its work this year and beyond. Below are 3 key themes from this year’s convention.

1. Organizing Everyday People, Especially Labor

This convention passed several exciting proposals around mobilizing everyday worker power. One was a major resolution setting clear goals around a “rank and file” worker organizing strategy. In short, key goals include: increasing organizing discussions in people’s unionized and non-unionized workplaces; taking specific actions to help existing unions become more active and socialist; taking steps towards a mass labor action on May 1, and building further potential for mass labor actions; and leveraging MADSA’s worker power for building new unions, pulling existing union members towards socialism, and building coalitions within and between unions. The resolution emphasizes a move away from convincing formal labor leadership, and towards supporting rank-and-file workers in taking concrete steps for socialist organizing in their specific context.

The convention also ratified a Community Defense Working Group, which will be taking the main role in guiding MADSA’s STRIKE ICE OUT actions. The group will emphasize community education, non-violent neighborhood mobilizing, mutual aid, and strike preparation. Specific goals for the working group include providing materials and trainings, doing administrative tasks for maintaining neighborhood group chats across the city, encouraging in-person meetings between neighbors, disseminating information from other reliable sources (Voces, MTI, and Comite Sin Fronteras), supporting tenant organizing, and helping build towards a May 1st major labor action / general strike.

2. Electoral Work

Members voted to continue the Program Working Group, which is developing a formal platform with the key viewpoints and priorities of MADSA as a chapter. This work will be helpful in guiding MADSA’s collaboration with political candidates, and when deciding how to prioritize projects in the face of unprecedented growth in membership.

Members also passed a resolution to build DSA’s capacity as an independent political party. The resolution included a continuation of this past year’s electoral work, while also adding features like additional political education in the “off-season,” and collaboration with the Labor Working Group around research and explicit support of policy that improves labor rights.

Lastly, members passed a resolution reaffirming the chapter’s commitment to Palestinian liberation and anti-Zionism. This resolution mandates that any program, platform, and/or candidates endorsed by MADSA “must support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, refrain from any and all affiliation with the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups, pledge to oppose legislation that harms Palestinians and support legislation that supports Palestinian liberation.”

3. Improving Chapter Functions

Lastly, several convention items focused on improving the running of our chapter. A spirited discussion took place around the accessibility of meetings. One particular area of concern has been disability access, including – but not limited to – variable masking requirements at different meetings. Another topic was improving support for working parents within the chapter, who face additional barriers to participating in regular meetings. On Saturday, members discussed a proposal and an amendment around accessibility issues, and they ultimately decided to table the final vote until the April general membership meeting.

Several resolutions did pass related to the running of the chapter, including:
- Changes to certain chapter rules and processes, including standing meeting rules;
- Creating a cohort model for welcoming and onboarding new members to the chapter;
- Creating some editorial practices and increased structure for Red Madison, to improve responsiveness and to foster more participation in the publication.
A resolution around creating a process for formal coalition-building with external groups did not pass, after significant discussion and debate.

MADSA Attends “No Kings”

Members of the chapter recently attended the No Kings protest on March 28th, with the goal of being a visible socialist presence, handing out materials, and talking to interested crowd members about action steps for being politically engaged and effective. In preparation for the march, MADSA had organizing meetings, an art build on 3/27, and a crowd canvassing training emphasizing “NO ICE, NO WAR, NO BILLIONAIRES!”

Several MADSA members gave speeches at the protest! You can see them here, and shorter clips will be posted on Instagram in the coming week.

ICE Out Efforts Continue

MADSA continues to coordinate information about trainings and events, and neighborhood group chats, via the Strike Out ICE hub. Check it out here, and keep your eyes out for the newsletter in your inbox!

A major next step in the process is the Madison Worker’s Assembly on April 4th. This is an opportunity for the community to come together and reflect on goals and strategies for mass labor action.

Additional Organizing

Other important efforts this month included the following:
- Labor Working Group hosted a Strike Studies event on 3/2; the next one is on April 6th.
- MADSA hosted a panel discussion titled Against Empire: A Socialist Conversation on Imperialism on 3/26 – a topic that is especially relevant given current events.
- MADSA held an Affordable Housing Panel, featuring local organizers and elected officials on 3/27 – video here!
- The Program Working Group had an event on one of the planks in MADSA’s developing platform – public transit! This took place on 3/31.
- There was a one-off reading group on 3/23 focusing on two short texts by Alexandra Kollontai, focusing on the intersection of Marxism and feminism.
And coming soon:
- MADSA is starting to prepare for another Queer Liberation March, with a meeting planned for 4/4.
- DSA made plans to attend the upcoming May Day Strong Solidarity School, preparing for a May 1st day of mass labor action / general strike – this is scheduled for April 11th.
Social Events

We continue hosting recurring social events – DSA 101, Coffee with Comrades, and the Rosebuddies program. MADSA Run Club is making a return on Sundays as the weather warms up!

Protest Song of the Month

For this month’s song, have a 1913 tune by Joe Hill, We Will Sing One Song.
- Video here of a modern cover.
- More about Joe Hill here.
And that concludes our monthly round-up!
April 1, 2026
Monthly Round-Up – February 2026
This article is written by a DSA member and does not formally represent the views of MADSA as a whole or its subgroups.

Welcome to Vol. 7 of the monthly round-up! The content in this publication overlaps significantly with our DSA newsletter and monthly General Membership Meetings. To sign up for the newsletter or check out an upcoming General Membership Meeting, visit: https://madison-dsa.org/events/

ICE Out Hub / Strike Out ICE!

MADSA has launched a centralized resource for community defense and related organizing in Madison. Members in the February GMM debriefed about MADSA’s ICE-related efforts so far, and approved a proposal for Strike Out ICE!

MADSA’s goals are to support other groups already doing this work – especially Voces de la Frontera – while also developing networks of mutual aid, supporting MADSA members in becoming active organizers, and building towards a national general strike on May 1st. What is most exciting to this author is that the strike plan is a movement backed by real strategy and community ties, not just a random internet call to action. The chapter is working on political education, building community bonds, spreading the word among coworkers and friends, and coordinating with other organizations, including unions. The strike could be a historic step in taking back the people’s power across the nation and in turning the tides of politics in the United States, if people embrace the spirit of making real, concrete demands, and shutting down the economy to ensure they are met.

You can check out the hub here: https://madison-dsa.org/ice-out-hub/ The hub also contains weekly strike reports, and members will receive these reports in their email inboxes as a newsletter.

I encourage all members to take action today, whether that’s joining a neighborhood group chat, attending an educational meeting about strike history or organizing skills, being trained as a legal observer, or talking to people in your life about the strike. And remember – millions of people participating imperfectly will always outweigh a few dozen participating perfectly. Embrace uncertainty and imperfection as a normal part of your political process!

MADSA Endorses Heidi Wegleitner for Re-Election

Members voted in the February meeting to endorse Heidi’s re-election campaign for Dane County Board. Heidi has served as a delegate to the South Central Federation of Labor, is in a leadership role with the United Legal Workers union in Madison, and has a long history of fighting for housing rights. She will be running in District 2, which includes most of the Isthmus north of E. Washington Avenue, including neighborhoods around James Madison Park, Tenney Park, and Demetral Park. Elections will take place on April 7th, 2026.

Additional Organizing

Other important efforts this month included the following:
- No Appetite for Apartheid held a launch party, and is now regularly hosting Grocery Scouting with DSA. At these 1 hour events, you can meet a MADSA member at a specific grocery store and learn how to spot products for boycotting, and how to build your voice for pressuring stores to stop carrying companies that are complicit in the subjugation of Palestinian people.
- Phil Gasper held a talk on Trotsky’s Marxism at the Madison Public Library.
- Southern Dane County Branch successfully had its own membership meeting.
- There is now a working group meeting regularly about Fran Hong’s campaign.
- A temporary working group is aiming to establish a physical office for MADSA to help with our growing size and work load.
- Some chapter members have been seeking to grow community ties through art and music, and are building towards a community art build in March, as well as fostering a stronger chanting and music presence at protests.
Social Events

We continue hosting recurring social events – New Member Orientations, DSA 101, Coffee with Comrades, and the Rosebuddies program. A highlight from February was a special Galentine’s day event on February 13th!

The chapter also has a newly-started reading group for The Communist Manifesto, meeting on Saturdays at 10am.

Protest Song of the Month

MADSA members highlighted a few songs this month as part of the budding art and music efforts in the chapter. A recent feature was a modernized version of The Internationale, with lyrics updated in 2020 by Billy Bragg. Check it out here – song starts at 3 minutes in!

And that concludes our monthly round-up!
February 28, 2026
Monthly Round-Up – January 2026
This article is written by a DSA member and does not formally represent the views of MADSA as a whole or its subgroups.

Welcome to Vol. 6 of the monthly round-up! The content in this publication overlaps significantly with our DSA newsletter and monthly General Membership Meetings. To sign up for the newsletter or check out an upcoming General Membership Meeting, visit: https://madison-dsa.org/events/

MADSA Endorses Fran Hong for Governor

Cheers erupted in the January 28th General Membership Meeting when over 100 people voted in favor of endorsing Francesca Hong in the upcoming Wisconsin gubernatorial race. The air in the meeting was electric and attendance was the largest in recent chapter history. Comrades engaged in rousing debate during the discussion block, on factors including election timing, chapter capacity, trust in structures of power, the opportunities and drawbacks that come with campaign organizing work, and the potential representation of socialism in WI. Ultimately, the chapter expressed readiness to put work into this campaign.

As the District 76 State Representative and a member of the Wisconsin Legislative Socialist Caucus, Fran has championed democratic socialist policies like universal childcare, public education and healthy school meals for all, paid family leave, and an Economic Justice Bill of Rights which guarantees the right to a unionized job. She continues to run as a proud democratic socialist on a platform of economic justice and workers’ rights. This campaign also means a huge opportunity for community-building; people will be connecting across Wisconsin through door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, town halls, and other volunteer opportunities during the campaign. The chapter looks forward to meeting new people, discussing the issues that matter to them, and promoting policies for building working class power.

Chapter Prepares for Upcoming Annual Convention

The DSA follows a deliberative democratic decision-making process, empowering all members to have a say in local and national DSA action. The process has many benefits, including feeling a higher sense of ownership in the projects of the organization, building leadership and speaking skills among members, encouraging critical thinking, modeling active participation in decisions that impact us, maintaining a sense of accountability in leaders, and being able to focus on several areas based on the abilities and desires of membership. As our chapter has grown in size, we’ve seen new working groups, changes to the bylaws governing our chapter, expansion of certain roles, and lots of lively discussion in-person and in our online channels! We’ve been seeing more debate as well, which is a sign of healthy engagement.

We have an opportunity for more change as our annual chapter convention is approaching. The dates have been finalized for March 20th and March 21st, 2026. The convention plays a huge role in chapter work for the rest of the year. At the convention, you will:
- Hear reports from working groups in our chapter;
- Vote on continuing existing working groups (rechartering);
- Vote on new bylaw amendments and chapter resolutions (starting new campaigns, working groups, projects, etc.);
- Vote for leadership positions – executive co-chairs, administrator, treasurer, communication and membership coordinators, “at-large,” Solidarity Captains, and the Community Accountability Committee (“CAC”).
There are several preparation meetings scheduled before the convention, where people can co-work on resolutions and get feedback. Here is the timeline leading up to convention:
- Resolution Writing Workshop 1 – January 14th, which already took place this month!
- Resolution Writing Workshop 2 – February 12th 6:30-8:30pm at Social Justice Center.
- Due date for All Convention Materials – February 20th.
- Due date for Amendments to Proposals – March 10th.
- March General Meeting – convention agenda will be discussed – March 11th.
- Convention Friday March 20th 6-9pm + Saturday March 21st 10am-4pm.
Click here to see the full Convention Guide and/or RSVP – all members are strongly encouraged to attend so that they can participate in leading MADSA’s next steps for 2026!

ICE Out: Working Towards Community Safety

Alongside hope for Fran’s campaign, and focus for the upcoming convention, people’s hearts are burning with fear, sadness, and rage around state violence inflicted in the name of unjust “immigration enforcement” and protest “crowd control.” We are witnessing senseless deaths and extrajudicial kidnappings – flagrant human rights violations.

Socialists know that the horrors we are seeing today are not the result of one mad leader (nor his cabinet), but the result of over a century of festering capitalism, racism, and imperialism concentrating wealth and power to the few. MADSA released a statement, and is ongoingly deliberating on what our medium- and long-term role will be in supporting communities around safety and immigration rights in the face of escalating political violence. The previous section noted the highlights of our deliberative democracy structure, but the major drawback is that decisions tend to move more slowly than in a “top-down” structure. While that work is ongoing, MADSA and its members have organized and participated in several actions in January, and will continue to do so:
- Members participated in the Ice Out Solidarity Vigil on January 9th after the killing of Nicole Good, as well as the following Ice Out rally on January 10th.
- Members participated further in an Ice Out rally on January 25th in response to the killing of Alex Pretti. Member Sam D. gave a speech – click here for a link with captions.
- Members participated in an ICE Week of Action building up to a January 30th walk-out + march and the January 31st Madison Anti-ICE Community Meeting organized by MADSA. This included Know Your Rights training, group discussion, opportunities to generate concrete political demands, and information about next steps to build networks of community support. Organizers will continue to meet around this work.
- Members are also building to a national general strike on May Day, which will include demands around safety for immigrant communities and communities of color.
Additional Organizing

Other important efforts this month included the following:

The Labor Working Group is launching the Madison Organizing Institute –a 12-week long course designed for anyone who wants to build or strengthen a union in their workplace. The course will teach you about your organizing rights, skills for talking to coworkers, developing demands, and more. Click here for the link to sign up.

No Appetite for Apartheid announced a launch party scheduled for February 7th, 6-8pm at James Reeb on E. Johnson. This event is open to the public, stating: “The goal of the No Appetite for Apartheid campaign is to make Madison a more ethical place to shop by removing all grocery items complicit in the violence against Palestinians.”

A member announced an Artists’ Planning Meeting for February 1st with the goal of adding art programming to the upcoming Convention, and overall increasing art and music engagement in the chapter.

MADSA has been more in touch with Milwaukee DSA in light of recent organization work, and the latter chapter published a podcast episode about successful labor organizing in Milwaukee. Listen to it here!

Social Events

We continue hosting recurring social events – New Member Orientations, DSA 101, Coffee with Comrades, and the Rosebuddies program. We also look forward to various canvassing opportunities and electoral campaign-related events in February and beyond.

Protest Song of the Month

For January, I present the Song of Choice by Peggy Seeger. This song uses an extended metaphor of dormant seeds to represent fascism, and urges the listener to pull the weeds before it’s too late. A snippet:

“Early every year, seeds are growing

Unseen, unheard, they lie beneath the ground.

Would you know before the leaves are showing

That with weeds all your garden will abound?

If you close your eyes, stop your ears,

Hold your mouth, how can you know?

The seeds you cannot see may not be there;

The seeds you cannot hear may never grow…

In January you’ve still got the choice,

You can cut the weeds before they start to bud!

If you leave them to grow higher, they’ll silence your voice

And in December you may pay with your blood!”

And that concludes our monthly round-up!
February 1, 2026
Hy-Vee

“The store director knew catering orders for more than 10 people were being fulfilled and not being individually wrapped by the kitchen staff; enabling the dangerous behavior of his customers. Online ordering employees have one tiny office everyone likes to congregate and eat in. The kitchen brings food to said office (for the employees) instead of the larger restaurant seating area that is now off limits to customers. A large record sale poster that indicated we made roughly quarter of a billion dollars in one week was placed next to a letter to employees about how great we’ve done and that we would get and extra $1-2/hour for holidays. Holiday…not hazard. Our employee discount went from 10% to 20% for one week so we could “have a wonderful Easter”. Again, we made quarter of a billion dollars in one week and for it we got holiday pay.”

Hy-Vee
Contact Form
Corporate Office Phone: (515) 267-2800

These are people’s stories in their own words. Submissions are edited only for clarity.
Submit to the Wall of Shame

April 15, 2020
Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD)

“Until recently, the company provided all employees a timecode to use if we couldn’t work due to COVID-19, including being ill, taking care of an ill family member, or taking care of children who could no longer go to school. As of April 6, the timecode was retired and employees are now left with using their PTO or short-term disability (which does not take effect until after a week of using PTO). Some employees can work from home, but those who are required to work in-lab that develop symptoms will now have to choose between paying their bills or self-quarantining if they don’t have enough PTO.”

Text of the email announcing the new COVID-19 policy

Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD)
Twitter | Facebook

These are people’s stories in their own words. Submissions are edited only for clarity.
Submit to the Wall of Shame

April 15, 2020
Willy Street Co-op

“Yes to sanitizer and shield between cashier and customers, but no protection between the customer behind the cashier at the next register. Social distancing is a joke at this store. No gloves or masks provided.
I took a 2 week emergency sick leave for which I will be paid, but as of now I have to burn up all my sick and vacation time since I can’t work in these conditions being high risk. FMLA does not apply.”

Willy Street Co-op
Phone: (608) 251-0884
Fax: (608) 251-3121

These are people’s stories in their own words. Submissions are edited only for clarity.
Submit to the Wall of Shame

April 11, 2020
NORD Gear Corporation

“My mother works for this company. Multiple employees have tested positive for the virus, yet the company refuses to close despite their business not being essential. They have people working in close quarters. They’ve threatened that employees who do not come to work will lose all vacation time, and said that if they’re forced to close people may lose their jobs permanently. Management and HR staff are either barricaded in their offices and refusing to meet with employees, or staying home entirely—they’re clearly afraid for themselves but are putting their employees at risk every day.”

NORD Gear Corporation
Phone: 888-314-6673
Fax: 800-373-6673
Email: info.us[at]nord[dot]com

These are people’s stories in their own words. Submissions are edited only for clarity.
Submit to the Wall of Shame

April 11, 2020
Behind the Front Lines: What Grocery Store Workers Want Shoppers to Know in Light of COVID-19

An interview with Angelica Engel by Dayna Long

Angelica Engel works at Willy Street Co-op’s East location in the deli and the juice bar. She is a member of the UE 1186 bargaining committee, which just negotiated the union’s first contract with Willy Street Co-op Management, ratified earlier this month. Engel is also a member of Madison Area DSA.

DL: How does it feel to work in a grocery store right now? How is morale for you and your co-workers and what are the biggest stressors?

AE: I would say that work at the grocery store feels more meaningful than it has ever felt before. It is really nice that there’s recognition that our work is important and that distributors of food have important jobs.

Morale has been mixed. Generally, people I’ve interacted with have been in pretty fine spirits. There’s a sense of camaraderie right now. But the people who are at work seem to be pleased to be there helping out.

However, many are not at work because they have some kind of illness, but nobody can get tested so we’re not sure. So it would be great to have more certainty about that. Many have taken anxiety related time off of work.

There’s also a lot more sudden emotional overhwhelm than ever before. Where it’s just – you just suddenly are crying. And then there’s a fear of getting sick obviously and anxiety – lots of anxiety – about how this is impacting our friends and our family members who also work in food service but not at a grocery store and who are now unemployed.

DL: Is it stressful to be interacting with the public as regularly as you are right now?

AE: At the beginning when we were just starting new measures – changing out deli services and enforcing occupancy rules, keeping under 50 people in the store at a time – there was more stress with interacting with the public. But that has changed over time as people have grown more accustomed to the new way we’re doing things.

DL: In a lot of workplaces, we’re seeing that it’s the workers who first recognized how COVID-19 was going to impact what they do and understood what changes need to be made to make the workplace safe. It makes sense because workers have firsthand experience that bosses and owners often lack. How do you think this played out in terms of preparation for COVID-19 at your workplace? Are there steps you want the Co-op to take that member-owners and shoppers can advocate for?

AE: Thus far, we have not heard about a plan for if and probably when a worker tests positive. Do we all drop what we’re doing and leave? Who’s going to work? I mean, we have the temporary agreement between the union and management related to COVID-19 that there would be temp workers and what not, but it’s hard to understand what would happen if we heard that somebody who had been at work just recently tested positive. And of course tests aren’t very available so maybe we don’t have to worry about that. But that’s messed up.

Also the bargaining committee needs to be more included in the decision making regarding this crisis. We’re standing in as the interim officers [of the union]. Stewards need to be more included in the decision making. So putting pressure on management regarding these features would be helpful.

It also seems like it would be really beneficial if there was more clear and thorough communication about sanitation standards. There’s a lot of new processes that are getting put in about how to clean things down at the end of the night but not everyone is getting this information. Better communication would be great. And I recognize that there’s mixed communications at all levels of government here.

The capacity of the store being decreased from before was helpful but it seems like it could be beneficial to decrease it even more. Even though we have the lines on the floor for social distancing from workers, it’s still very difficult to move around the store and maintain six feet of distance between people. Some of these aisles are barely six feet wide. So having less people in the store seems like it would help. Also I know that our curbside pickup and delivery options have been ramped up a bit. It would be great to see even more of that just to reduce that capacity of the store.

DL: You and your co-workers are coming off of a successful campaign to unionize and you just negotiated your first contract with co-op management. How are those efforts impacting the workforce during the COVID-19 crisis?

AE: I think there’s a sense that we feel better protected since we have the contract. Also a great sense that it got [ratified] just in time. It was right down to the wire. We weren’t able to properly celebrate our victory because that ten person limit [on gatherings] came in the day that our ratification meetings were happening. So we really got it done just in time.

I find it pretty poignant that our unionization campaign started with the no-fault attendance policy, with people being disciplined for calling in sick. So now we have our sick time and we won’t get disciplined for using it but there’s a sense that we need to protect it more than ever. We don’t want to deplete our sick banks because of COVID-19. There is protection against that with the legislation that went through and with the agreement with management we made on the fly that very Monday of the [contract] ratification. But there’s still so much confusion and anxiety and we would like more of an assurance that we’ll have a job if we have long-term impacts from this crisis.

DL: In states like Vermont and Minnesota, grocery store workers have been designated emergency workers during the COVID-19 crisis, which both allows grocery workers to keep reporting to work as other non-essential workers are ordered to stay at home, and makes them eligible for certain benefits, like free childcare. Do you think this designation would be helpful for grocery store workers in Wisconsin? What other policy changes would help grocery workers continue to provide the services that we’re all recognizing are essential to our communities?

AE: I think that absolutely it would be helpful in Wisconsin for grocery store workers to be emergency workers. A lot of people have kids and kids aren’t in school. And that’s definitely caused some people to already use the extra two weeks they got as a part of our agreement with management. But this obviously isn’t going away as fast as we thought it might. So that would absolutely help.

Generally, policy changes that would be very helpful for grocery store workers are the same things that would be beneficial to all workers. These obviously aren’t things that can necessarily happen immediately since there’s so much going on. But the same things that we always hear about – cancelling student debt, having universal basic income, higher wages, Medicare for all, so that we can be more flexible about how many hours we work and don’t get burned out as fast, so we don’t have as much exposure to pathogens, and so that we’d be able to have more flexibility in general and less stress. So that we could know that we won’t be financially ruined if we fall ill and can’t work for a while.

DL: Is there anything else you want people to understand about the experiences grocery workers are having right now?

AE: There’s anxiety about what we’ll be doing day to day. You know, you go into work and you don’t know what department you’re gonna be in necessarily. Things change from minute to minute and that’s not necessarily under anyone’s control. But just know that like all workers are having less predictability, less certainty, more stress, that impacts us maybe even more since we still have to go to work and there’s so much fear around [COVID-19]. Have some sensitivity and understanding that we’re doing the best we can. If our moods are off, there’s a reason.

March 27, 2020