Picket Of Senator Feinstein's For Union Busting

The flack who is supporting Feinstein knows that it is illegal to close a business to avoid unionization but it happens all the time including in San Francisco at the Noe Valley
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/09/24/BUGGG1T0DM1.DTL&hw=natural+foods+store+union&sn=042&sc=314

Noe Valley up in arms
David Lazarus
Wednesday, September 24, 2003



Looks like the heat is being turned up on Nutraceutical International, the Utah vitamin giant that sacked 30 employees from its Real Food Co. outlet in San Francisco's Noe Valley and closed the store for up to six months without any warning to customers.


Federal labor authorities are investigating former workers' claims that they were unlawfully fired because of efforts to unionize the staff. Multiple complaints have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection is investigating whether Nutraceutical began remodeling work at the 24th Street store without obtaining necessary permits.

The Board of Supervisors' City Services Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on Nutraceutical's business practices. The full board will subsequently vote on a resolution calling on all relevant agencies to "investigate thoroughly any alleged violations that have occurred as a result of Nutraceutical's actions."

Last, but not least, members of the community will meet Oct. 2 at the Noe Valley Ministry to discuss a unified response to Real Food's closure. Peter Gabel, the organizer of the meeting, said a boycott of thestore is possible if Nutraceutical does not rehire its former employees and address the neighborhood's concerns.

"There's a lot of people who are very angry," he told me. "Nutraceutical's strategy is obviously to wear down the community and hope that everyone forgets. I'm one neighbor who won't forget about this."

That's no idle threat. When Gabel learned this summer that a struggling local bookstore, Cover to Cover, was in danger of going under, he pulled the community together and raised $200,000 to keep the store afloat. Now he wants to apply the same grassroots activism to the neighborhood's main health food shop.

"This means not allowing an out-of-state corporation to conduct itself any way it wants," said Gabel, president emeritus of San Francisco's New College. "In Noe Valley, respect for employees and respect for customers is central to the philosophy of the neighborhood."

Nutraceutical clearly has a lot to learn about doing business in the Bay Area.

The company purchased four local health-food stores last year -- three Real Food outlets and Thom's Natural Foods on Geary Street. It also made failed offers for at least three other regional shops, primarily, store owners say, as a way to boost sagging vitamin sales.

Workers at the Noe Valley store were told at 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 28 that they were suddenly out of jobs. Longtime customers were surprised to discover the next morning that the store would be closed for as long as half a year, ostensibly for remodeling.

However, city records show that Nutraceutical has yet to apply for any permits for interior work at the site, a process that can take weeks or even months. The only permits sought by the company -- issued a week before the firings -- were limited to exterior modifications.

The Department of Building Inspection confirmed Tuesday that it is investigating whether any unauthorized interior work is now under way. An inspector said it appears that much of the interior already has been demolished.

In three separate complaints to the National Labor Relations Board, former Real Food workers charge that they were fired and the store closed not for remodeling but because of their union organizing. They confirmed that the NLRB is investigating the case.

Two former workers, Simon Knaphus and Jonathan Burkett, told me that they'd explicitly informed Nutraceutical executives of the staff's union plans several weeks before the firings.

But Sergio Diaz, Nutraceutical's marketing and sales manager, insists that the company had no inkling of any union activity on the part of employees.

In a phone interview from Utah this week, he described the meeting with Knaphus and Burkett as nothing more than "two employees who wanted to talk about concerns that they have. There was nothing related to a union."

In fact, Knaphus and Burkett said they handed to management a list of demands from the store's staff and openly discussed workers' union activity. They were told by the Nutraceutical execs that a follow-up meeting would be held this month -- after, it turned out, everyone was shown the door.

Diaz said he hadn't heard that the Board of Supervisors planned to look into the matter but was not troubled by the prospect.

"We have nothing to hide or be afraid of," he said. "There was no malpractice by this company."

However, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who represents Noe Valley and chairs the City Services Committee, said Diaz was personally informed of Thursday's hearing by e-mail and fax.

"This is a big deal," Dufty said. "Real Food was a major stakeholder in the neighborhood. The way this whole thing was done was a real slap in the face to the community."

Joining him on the committee are supervisors Fiona Ma and Gavin Newsom --

the latter, of course, being the frontrunner to become San Francisco's next mayor.

I asked Nutraceutical's Diaz if he had any worries about bad blood between his company and customers in the Bay Area. He said Nutraceutical "will explain all this to customers at the right time." He did not elaborate on when this might be.

He also maintained that Nutraceutical has "a great relationship with current employees and employees we had before." Diaz declined to comment on the probe by federal labor authorities.

As for the way in which the Noe Valley workers were fired and the store closed, he said it was all part of a deliberate strategy to limit the spread of rumors prior to the start of remodeling work.

"It was a decision that unfortunately hurt some people," Diaz said. "But we have no regrets about it."

Like I say, these guys have a lot to learn.

David Lazarus' column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He also can be seen regularly on KTVU's "Mornings on 2." Send tips or feedback todlazarus [at] sfchronicle.com.

Real Food Closes Amid Charges of Union-Busting
http://www.noevalleyvoice.com/2003/October/Real.html


Real Food Closes Amid Charges of Union-Busting


By Liz Highleyman

The abrupt late-August closure of the 24th Street branch of the Real Food Company, purchased last year by Utah-based Fresh Organics, Inc., has left many longtime Noe Valley customers scratching their heads, and a group of terminated employees crying foul.
"My jaw dropped and didn't go back up for an hour," said Duncan Street resident Georgia Schuttish, who has shopped at the store for nearly 20 years. "Real Food was part of Noe Valley, and we'd built up a relationship with the people who worked there."

According to a sign posted in the window of the now papered-over storefront, Fresh Organics--a subsidiary of vitamin and nutritional supplement manufacturer Nutraceutical Corporation--decided to "initiate a remodeling process" with the aim of "enhancing the shopping experience and improving the product mix."

But 30 employees fired en masse with no notice right before Labor Day tell a different story.

Workers Try to Unionize

"This was blatant union-busting," claimed Mission resident Lisa Fagundes, an ex-employee who helped spearhead an organizing effort at the 24th Street store.

According to Fagundes and another organizer, Adriel Ahern, workers at Real Food began meeting last May with a representative of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). Early this summer, union organizer Mitch Genlot was fired for being a "bad influence." Then in late July, Ahern, too, was dismissed--accused of "spreading negativity"--and Fagundes walked off the job in protest.

Aware that management had gotten wind of the organizing effort through an employee who accidentally leaked their plans, two other workers, Simon Knaphus and Jonathan Burkett, picked up the ball.

In early August, after most workers had signed union authorization cards, Knaphus and Burkett met with local store manager Conal Wilmot and two executives from the Fresh Organics parent office in Utah, Bruce Remund and marketing director Sergio Diaz.

According to Knaphus, she and Burkett "talked openly about union organizing" and presented a set of demands, among them a "living wage," more ergonomic equipment, a non-discrimination clause including gender identity, and more employee input into decisions affecting the store.

"We weren't asking for a $20-an-hour raise," said Ahern. "We were asking for respect, for consistent policies, and for a say in how the store is run. The cashiers know better what the community wants than a corporation in Utah."

The ex-employees said management agreed to meet with them in September to discuss their grievances. But instead, workers on duty Thursday, Aug. 28, were told that the store was closing, effective immediately. Other employees received phone calls that evening or the next day. Customers did not learn of the closure until they arrived to do their Labor Day weekend shopping and found the doors chained and padlocked.

Long Planned...Or Not?

Wilmot, a longtime employee who had worked at Real Food since before Fresh Organics took over, was reluctant to comment on the recent closure. "I don't know much about it myself," he said.

But Diaz denied that the shutdown had anything to do with union organizing. "I had no information about unionization plans," he said.

Diaz also said that the remodeling had been planned "for a long time." Remund did not return phone calls from the Voice.

At the request of the Voice, District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty asked the city's Department of Building Inspection (DBI) to do a search for outstanding permits on the property. According to William Wong, Deputy Director of Permit Services, as of mid-September, there were no active permits to do work inside the building.

In addition, claimed Fagundes, "They had done interviews to fill new grocery positions on Monday, and they had ordered extra milk and produce in anticipation of a busy three-day weekend."

"It seems like a bad way for a store to do business," Dufty commented. "If they want to make improvements, they should talk to the customers. That's only good business sense."

Store Says It Will Be Organic

According to Diaz, that's just what Fresh Organics has in mind. "It will be the same store, but we will try to add some things the community has been requesting for years, especially organic meats. It will still be a health food store, there will still be organic produce, the same selection of cheeses, and probably a better selection of bread."

Diaz added that the company would like to install an organic salad and soup bar, and possibly a back deck where customers could eat. But, he said, rumors that the 24th Street store would become a gourmet shop or a vitamin outlet are unfounded.

Asked whether closing without notice was standard practice for Fresh Organics, Diaz replied, "There is never a good way to do something like this. Whether we told customers a month, three weeks, or two weeks in advance, it would still be an inconvenience."

As for the employees, Diaz said the company gave them two weeks of severance pay in lieu of advance notice. Employees were told they could reapply for jobs when the store reopens, but were not given any guarantees they would have seniority over new hires.

Diaz declined to speculate on how long the renovations might take. "It will be a full remodeling, not a quick fix," he said. "We want to work as fast as we can, but the building is very old and full of surprises."

Other sources said they'd been told the store would be closed for a minimum of four to six months.

'That's Why People Don't Want Chains'

The promise of improvements--which many agree are sorely needed and long overdue--has not calmed the neighborhood's outrage about the way Fresh Organics handled the closure. In fact, for many Noe Valleyans, recent events have confirmed fears about large corporations taking over small businesses.

When Fresh Organics bought the 24th Street Real Food branch in March 2002--from Kimball and Jane Allen, the couple who opened the store in 1970--then-manager David Kloski attempted to allay concerns that the sale might have negative repercussions. Nutraceutical CEO Bill Gay was a champion of small businesses and did not want to change anything about the store or its involvement with the community, Kloski told the Voice. "It's an ethical company. Large, but ethical," Kloski said.

In light of the precipitous shuttering of the store, some beg to differ. "It's incomprehensible that they could be that callous," exclaimed Schuttish. "That's why people don't want chains."

Said Fagundes, "It makes me angry the way health food stores are acting. They pose themselves as different, as progressive. But they're just like Wal-Mart."

(Fresh Organics owns two other Real Food outlets, on Stanyan Street and in Sausalito, as well as Thom's Natural Foods on Geary Boulevard, but it does not own the Fillmore or Polk Street Real Food stores.)

Customers Threaten Boycott

Ex-employees and customers alike have vowed not to accept the closure and terminations without a fight.

The sacked workers have filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), charging that Fresh Organics illegally fired its workers in retaliation for union organizing. "The termination of all employees with no notice, under trumped-up pretenses of remodeling, is the final step in squelching a new unionized work environment," read a hastily prepared Aug. 29 press release. Fresh Organics "would rather have a staff composed of inexperienced and low paid twenty-somethings and a high turnover rate than knowledgeable long-term employees with a living wage and a positive and empowering working environment."

And some people are talking about a boycott.

"I've been shopping there absolutely forever, but they're not going to see me again," said Clipper Street lawyer Julie Traun. "If this company thinks the neighborhood can support what they did, I think they're wrong."

"The shoddy treatment of their workers shows a real lack of integrity in my book," concurred Sanchez Street resident Stephanie Levin. "I'd rather drive across town to Rainbow instead of patronizing a store that shows so little regard for its workforce."

Pressure from Board of Supervisors

Supervisor Dufty, too, has gotten in on the act. At the Sept. 16 meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, he introduced a resolution requesting that the NLRB, DBI, and other appropriate agencies "investigate thoroughly any alleged violations that have occurred as a result of Nutraceutical's actions."

Dufty's resolution was discussed at a public hearing of the City Services Committee on Sept. 25, attended by some 20 ex-employees and neighborhood residents. One speaker, Jerry Burt, an ex-manager of the Sausalito Real Food store, went on record saying that a Fresh Organics executive told him in no uncertain terms that "anyone caught unionizing will be terminated." The company, Burt continued, had "a cowboy mentality about obeying the law."

Fresh Organics did not send a representative to the hearing, but Diaz submitted a letter in response to the resolution. The letter stated that the company did not fire "long-term" employees, and had offered six employees, with tenures ranging from two to 15 years, positions at other locations. (The company declined to respond to allegations about union-related firings, since the NLRB investigation was under way.) "[I]n our judgment, an extended, publicly announced closure process would adversely affect employee and customer morale during the closure period, thereby increasing operational risks to an unacceptable level," wrote Diaz. "[W]e feel that we handled this store closure in the best way we could."

Dufty's resolution was considered by the full Board of Supervisors on Sept. 30, after the Voice went to press.

Residents Hold a Town Hall Meeting

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Street resident Peter Gabel, a New College law professor who spearheaded this summer's campaign to save Cover to Cover bookstore, is calling on the neighborhood to mobilize against the Real Food closure.

"The conduct of Fresh Organics was disrespectful not only to the workers, but also to the community," said Gabel. "It's an out-of-state corporation making strategic judgments that do not reflect the progressive principles of this neighborhood. Noe Valley should not be at the mercy of out-of-state decision-makers acting for the sake of their own profit."

Gabel has scheduled a neighborhood Town Hall meeting for Oct. 2 at 6 p.m., at the Noe Valley Ministry on Sanchez Street, to devise a plan to engage in "constructive dialogue" with the company. At this point, Gabel wants to treat the company as if it were still "capable of redemption." "Ideally, I hope it will result in a turnaround in the way they relate to the community," he said.

Should dialogue and mediation fail, neighbors have some other ideas up their sleeves--including suggesting that a worker-owned co-op or the recently closed Mikeytom Market move into the 24th Street building, which is still owned by the Allens.

Terminated employees are working with both the IWW and the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) to plan their next steps.

"We're waiting for the ex-employees to say how they want to move forward," said IWW representative Steve Ongerth. "The ideal outcome would be to get the company to rehire the workers, recognize the union, and accept workers' demands."

Bert Lysen, director of operations for the UFCW, said his group would keep a close eye on the situation as well. "The company hopes that when they reopen, people will forget about this, but I can assure you we will remind them in six months," he said. "People will vote with their dollars. It's in the best interests of the community and of the employer to hire these people back."

Noe Valley has not heard the last of the Real Food saga. "There will be flyers in the neighborhood soon," promised ex-employee Knaphus. h

http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/about/regional_newsletters/Region_20_Newsletter_Summer_2007.pdf



NLRB, Region 20 Roundup

Summer 2007 901 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1735 415-356-5130

NLRB FINDS REAL FOODS UNLAWFULLY CLOSED
A SAN FRANCISCO STORE AND FIRED
EMPLOYEES TO AVOID UNIONIZATION


Washington, D.C. – On July 24, 2007, the National Labor Relations Board
held that Nutraceutical and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Fresh Organics, Inc.,
dba Real Foods Company, engaged in multiple violations of the National
Labor Relations Act by closing one of its four San Francisco-area organic
grocery stores and terminating its employees in response to a union
organizing campaign. The Board found that in early May 2003, the grocer
learned that its employees were organizing a union at the 24th Street store in
San Francisco. Subsequently, two vocal union supporters were terminated in
July 2003. On August 7, 2003, Real Foods’ general manager/vice president
met with union supporters, who presented him with a list of demands. Then,
on August 28, 2003, the company closed its 24th Street store with no notice
to employees, vendors, or customers, terminating all 29 employees at the
24th Street store. The Board concluded the company’s actions were a
response to the union organizing campaign, and that the grocer did not close
the store for legitimate business reasons, noting that the company’s CEO
stated prior to the closure that the store would close if it unionized. In
reaching its conclusion about the closing of the store, the Board stated that
the timing of the decision came on the heels of the employees presenting
their list of grievances, as well as the escalation of events leading up to the
closing, including the terminations of the two union supporters, weighed
heavily in their finding that the grocer unlawfully shut down the 24th Street
store. The Board’s order awards backpay to the employees who were
unlawfully terminated, and also requires the grocer to place them on a
preferential hire list at the grocer’s remaining San Francisco-area stores,
unless and until positions are available for all of the employees who were
unlawfully discharged at the 24th Street store. The Board’s order also
requires Real Foods to cease and desist from its unlawful conduct and post a
notice to employees, which states the grocer’s obligations under the Board
order, at its California and Park City, Utah stores, and to mail copies of the
notice to the employees who worked at the 24th Street store. A circuit court
appeal of the Board’s decision has been filed. Kathleen C. Schneider and
Robert Guerra appeared as Counsel for the General Counsel of the NLRB in
the underlying administrative law trial in this case.

2460 Lyon St, San Francisco, CA 94123 - Do Feinstein and Blum Have Enough Space At Their Mansion
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