PROVIDENCE - Employees at Seven Stars Bakery reached a new contract agreement with management securing higher wages, guaranteed raises and increased bereavement leave, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local Union 328 announced Tuesday.
The 94 employees at all Seven Stars locations voted overwhelmingly to accept the contract following 13 bargaining sessions with the company since September.
All employees will receive immediate pay increases of $1 to $1.48 per hour based on years of service. Raises over the course of the contract will ensure that the workers are above minimum wage, which was increased to $16 in Rhode Island on Jan. 1.
Additionally, the new hiring rate was shortened from 12 to nine months and bereavement leave was increased by two days, coming to a total of five days for spouses, children and parents.
The last major inclusion to the new contract is new language allowing for employees to take time off for union work, said Christopher Sullivan, UFCW Local 328 organizer.
For Sullivan, this had a personal significance. “I’m a former Seven Stars Bakery employee,” he said. “I was there for the first contract. When I came to work for the union, I had to quit working for Seven Stars.” The new contract will mean others won’t have to make the same decision.
Seven Stars
agreed to recognize the employee union represented by UFCW Local 328 in June 2022. Management and employees reached the
first contract agreement in January 2023, and which expired Dec. 31, 2025.
“A lot has obviously changed by originally unionizing,” Sullivan said. “Workers were able to have their voices heard and make sure the company had to come to the table about concerns such as worker safety and wages.”
Seven Stars Bakery could not be immediately reached for comment. The company currently operates seven locations, four in Providence, two in Cranston and one in East Greenwich.
"This contract represents a big win for us and the workers who will come after us," said Jesennia Zamora, long-time employee and shop steward.
Each contract, which lasts four years, is a foundation for the next, Sullivan said, which the union is always looking to build on in pursuit of larger goals. One of these was reaching – and surpassing – minimum wage.
Veer Mudambi is the special projects editor at Providence Business News. He can be reached at mudambi@pbn.com.
