How 50,000 Workers Transformed Long Grocery Lines Into Bargaining Power Using Worker-Centered Technology

Overview

In preparation for its 2025 grocery bargaining campaign, UFCW 3000, representing over 50,000 grocery and healthcare workers across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, leveraged our innovative digital tracker to spotlight a persistent issue in the grocery sector: chronic understaffing. The tracker, an example of the worker-centered technological tools we build and deploy to serve and empower workers, amplifies worker and customer voices, exposes understaffed stores, and generates real-time data to bring to the bargaining table.

Challenge

Many grocery stores across the Pacific Northwest are chronically understaffed, leading to:

• Long checkout lines
• Empty shelves and reduced product availability
• Frustrated customers
• Heightened stress for workers

Without a way to compile data across stores, the scope of these challenges has not been widely understood. The union sought a public-facing platform that could simultaneously gather data over a wide geographic area, mobilize public support, and pressure employers to act.

Solution: No Grocery Lines

The UFCW 3000 Tracker enables both workers and customers to report real-time experiences of long lines and low product availability. Each submission contributes to an aggregate rating for each store and a visual map showing understaffing across the region.

Key Features

• Multilingual Access:  Reporting available in English and Spanish
• Real Time Reporting: Reports from workers and customers are published immediately
• Smiley Face Ratings: Simple, user-friendly visual rating input and output
• Geolocation Integration: Users can opt to automatically see nearby grocery stores, or can filter by brand or location
• Campaign integration: After submission, users are directed to additional resources and information on the UFCW 3000 website

Impact

Nogrocerylines.org collected over 2,650 worker and customer reports across 350 grocery stores within the first 2 months. 

The public transparency of the  tracker put sustained pressure on employers throughout UFCW 3000’s bargaining process. With worker and customer reports visible in real time, the tracker served as a living, public record of understaffing conditions that employers could not dismiss or ignore. 

During bargaining sessions, UFCW 3000 strategists drew directly from the platform, sharing individual stories and fresh reports from specific stores to demonstrate ongoing dissatisfaction with current employer policies. This real-time integration of worker and customer testimony provided union negotiators with concrete, timely evidence that strengthened the union's demands and underscored the urgency for change.

This effort marked a significant evolution in UFCW 3000’s digital organizing strategy—transforming anecdotal frustration into measurable, negotiable evidence. By combining technology, worker experiences, and strategic pressure, the tracker helped shift the conversation from isolated complaints to systemic accountability.