Locked Out at Castlewood Country Club

After more than 80 days, 61 food service and maintenance workers are still out of work in Pleasanton. The workers – members of Unite Here Local 2850 – were locked out by Castlewood Country Club in February as it and the union were negotiating a new contract.

Prior to the lockout, Castlewood had proposed a new contract that would have forced workers to pay $739 a month for family health care coverage. Workers had previously not paid for family health care, and 24 workers and 67 dependents relied on Castlewood's family coverage. The proposal would have made coverage unaffordable to many of the workers, most of whom make around $12.50 an hour.

In its counter proposal, the union offered to forgo a $1 an hour raise in exchange for capping workers' family health care contributions to $225 – the upper limit of what it says workers can afford. Financial breakdowns of the two proposal provided by workers show that the union's proposal was actually almost $1,000 a month cheaper than management's. But Castlewood did not respond to the union's proposal, opting instead to lockout its workers on February 25.

“We think the real reason for the lockout is not about money but about getting rid of the union,” said locked-out worker Angel Melendez.

Not long after the lockout began, a vote was held on whether to decertify the union. Melendez and other workers reported that Castlewood management called them to a meeting before the election and told them that they could return to work as soon as they voted out the union. Despite this, workers voted overwhelmingly to keep the union.

“Despite Castlewood's starvation tactics, the workers voted to preserve their union,” said Local 2850 researcher Nischit Hegde. “And everyday they're voting with their feet on the picket line.”

As the months wear on, the lockout has turned increasingly bitter. Interactions with members at the exclusive country club have become increasingly confrontational. And the financial strain is taking its toll on workers.

Francisca Carranza, a janitor at Castlewood, was the sole wage earner in her family after her husband was forced out of work due to a disability and her daughter was laid off. Her family had been using Castlewood's health coverage, but now they are living off of unemployment benefits. Carranza said that many of the club's members think she and her coworkers are on strike. “We did not choose to be out here,” Carranza said. “They locked us out.”

Earlier this month, Carranza joined four others, including two of her coworkers from Castlewood, in a three-day hunger strike to dramatize the effect of the lockout on the workers. The five hunger strikers gathered in front of Castlewood's club house as it held a Mother's Day celebration.

“We are trying to show the members that we are mothers and fathers trying to provide for our families,” Carranza said.

For more information, visit http://endthelockout.org/.