Berkeley Bowl's 2nd Anti-Union Victory

Some people would like to frame the most recent Berkeley Bowl Produce Inc.(or Glenn and Diane Yasuda)victory over the workers and the union as being solely one group or persons fault. It seems that walking away from this people might say it was the UFCW or the pro-union employees wo messed up, but that would be neglecting everything that management did to ensure that the Anti-Union side would be victorious. In fact, if people were simple to blame the union, which they could, they would somehow have to figure in the fact that their have been 2 major anti-union victories for the Berkeley Bowl in their time in Berkeley and it was against 2 different union locals(though both part of the UFCW). And yes, some of the pro-union employees only wanted to walkout of the store for 15 minutes after Arturo was fired, but the union was not part of that decision, and the union lawyer actually encouraged people to do it longer when he was asked whether it was legal.

I guess the bottom line is....Berkeley Bowl's owners and some of the managers know what they are doing when they bust a union. They pay high priced law firms or lawyers to consult them. If they ever did get rid of Jackson and Lewis in this round of employees' organizing efforts. They still have a previous history with Jackson and Lewis when they used them to defend Jan John and other supervisors in the kitchen for sexual harrassment charges. Jan John is still at the Berkeley Bowl harrassing female customers all the time, and Berkeley Bowl has had a long history of protecting creeps like him. Berkeley Bowl has busted a union in a similar manner before too, in 1986, mostly the same tricks occured only this time they hired a human resources person. It's not too clear what has changed with their tactics, or even how you can overcome rich person who buys people off and intimidates them. Hopefully eventually the owners will be caught somehow in this sick game.

At any rate this most recent campaign is still not over, and they still may get caught in this recent round of union busting and breaking laws to lie, intimidate, and buy out their workers against the union.