If you shop at a Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC or Albertson's, you probably noticed the yard signs saying, "Share the Success" posted on the lawn outside your grocery store recently. I work at West Seattle's Safeway in Jefferson Square, and I am one of the 20,000 United Food and Commercial Workers in Puget Sound who are urging these companies to share the success with us - and with our communities.

It's getting tougher and tougher for me to make ends meet on the money that I make and the hours that I get at the West Seattle Safeway. Over the years, I've watched Safeway transform from a business with a solid focus on great customer service, into a large hugely profitable corporation.

Last year, Safeway, Albertson's and Kroger's (Fred Meyer and QFC) made a combined $8.3 billion in profits nationally. In our region, they hold 80 percent of the market share. They're spending millions on store remodels, acquisitions, and on new stores. They can afford to assure those of us who helped earn those profits a reasonable increase in pay. They can afford to help us manage escalating health care costs and they can afford to use scheduling practices that support raising a family.

I know that Safeway's CEO makes millions, has stock options and a company jet for personal use. I know shareholders take home bundles of money. I have no problem with profits that are hard earned. I do, however, have a problem with the fact that we shared the work and don't get a fair share of the success.

Sharing the success would mean that, as workers of these profitable chains, we could afford the groceries we sell. I've seen coworkers leave the store during lunch hour and go down to the local food bank because they couldn't afford to buy it at the store.

I've seen coworkers lose their jobs when a prolonged illness meant they lost their place on the schedule. Even healthy workers have a hard time getting enough hours to make a living. The average work week for grocery workers in Puget Sound is 26 hours.

Sharing the success means I can call in sick without losing a day's pay; it means a worker can make a parent-teacher conference without getting his hours cut and his income reduced because of callous scheduling practices.

Since my wages don't meet the cost of living and I'm struggling every day to make ends meet, I know that I am one health care crisis from bankruptcy. When you go month after month living from paycheck to paycheck, you can't save for the kid's college, for retirement or even to make the rising rent.

I know that we all continually hear how the cost of living is going up. It's a scary feeling that you're being priced out of the middle class. Why are these profitable national chains allowed to turn our hard work into their profits at our expense? The only answer to that question is because we let them.

This time around, we have a powerful voice. Every bargaining day, we join the United Food and Commercial Workers bargaining team at the table. You have no idea how enlightening it is to see representatives of these national chains face to face and hear what they have to say.

As grocery workers we've given our employers fair proposals for health care, wages and pension issues. We're fighting hard to get a fair deal during this contract negotiation. But we're finding it tough to get these profitable chains to share the success.

So, stay tuned. And next time you come into the West Seattle Safeway or wherever you shop, tell the worker behind the cash register that you're behind them.

Melissa Champion may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com