Bowl of discontent
Labor-management conflicts at popular Berkeley grocery store build as union vote nears

By Rachel Brahinsky

After months of bitter disagreements with managers over working conditions, 221 employees of Berkeley Bowl Marketplace are scheduled to vote Oct. 30 on whether to form a union at the alternative grocery store, known for its fresh local produce and aisles of bulk foods.

The vote comes after an organizing and education campaign in which pro-union workers publicly accused owner Glen Yasuda of unfair treatment in handing out wages, benefits, and promotions. Yasuda would not personally respond to my repeated requests for comment, so what I know about the union drive, and the conditions that apparently spawned it, comes from the workers themselves.

Pro-union employees began talking about organizing a union late last year. Citing a lack of job security, favoritism, and lower average pay than the industry standard, former employee Chuck McNally told me the store was ripe for an organizing drive. "No policies are laid out clearly," he said in July, soon after he was fired from his job as a dairy clerk. "Basically you're told, 'There's the door. If you don't like it, leave.' "

Since workers began talking openly about organizing back in May, managers have engaged in a concerted internal campaign to squash the union effort, according to representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 120, which is leading the drive. Memos and flyers from the management have subtly – and overtly – discouraged union involvement. One flyer, handed out when union members were gathering the required signatures from interested employees, read, "little card, big trouble." Another explains how the election process will work and assures employees they can still vote no on the union – even if they signed a card in the past supporting the idea.

This behavior mirrors that of employers facing union drives nationwide. Some 75 percent hire antiunion consultants, and 92 percent force employees to attend antiunion meetings, according to the Nation.

It's also all too common for workers involved in union activity to be fired, though it's illegal for the firing to be tied to union activity. In the case of Berkeley Bowl, workers say the Sept. 19 firing of produce worker Arturo Perez was a signal from management that it's willing to flex its muscle against pro-union staffers. Perez said that after many months of what he called unfair treatment – in which newer employees were promoted over him and he was passed over for raises – he was fired for buying marked-down beans at too low a price. His termination notice, which he shared with me, gave no other reason for the firing. Perez told me his managers said he should have paid about 40 cents more than he did.

Perez said he was told to stay away from the store. "I was incredibly humiliated. But I knew the consequences when I started all this."

After he was let go, cashiers staged a 15-minute walkout in protest Sept. 21 in the middle of a busy shopping day. Since then, managers have been pulling employees aside for private meetings. Cashier Daniel Hague said that a few days after the walkout, he was called in for a meeting with Lea Hyke, the newly hired human resources director.

"She said we were 100 percent entitled to our opinion, but not to walk out, hang flyers, and not to talk about the union with customers," he told me a few days after the action. "If I talk to customers or employees about it, I can be fired. It's heavy. They're telling us basically to shut up or go."

In late September, after Perez's firing, I went to the store to again try to get Yasuda's side of the story. Instead of Yasuda, Hyke came out to speak with me. When I asked about Perez and the union drive, she said, "Our policy is not to discuss our employees with anyone. I have no other comment than that. There's no story here."

But workers say there is a story. "How did we garner such quick interest in the union? All we did was walk around with numbers from unionized grocery store contracts," produce worker Eric Feezeel said.

An analysis by the UFCW shows that union grocery wages start in the $9 range but move up a pre-agreed scale to as much as $20 to $29 an hour, depending on the position. Berkeley Bowl employees earn $9 to $13 an hour, according to UFCW organizer Jeremy Plague. The East Bay Express reported Oct. 1 that some staffers make $19.50 an hour, but Plague notes the higher wage only applies to managers, who aren't part of the bargaining unit.

Even so, Plague and pro-union workers said they don't expect the independent store to exactly match wages paid by large chains. As Plague put it, "The real issue with wages is the absolute lack of any sort of guideline or structure for getting raises."

Beyond wages, Berkeley Bowl's apparent lack of consistency in issuing health insurance plans has also been cited as a problem. Baggers, for example, are considered temporary employees. So even if they stay with the company for years, working full-time, they are never eligible for health care. The Express quoted manager Dan Kataoka as saying all but seven of Berkeley Bowl's approximately 200 full-time workers have had health benefits in recent months. But the union disputes this, and Kataoka didn't return my call.

But according to Plague, Berkeley Bowl changed its health care policy dramatically just this month. In the past workers were told not to work full-time so the company could avoid paying for health benefits. But now, just weeks before the union vote, all employees working 32 hours or more each week have health benefits – and they don't have to pay a dime.

The fight is happening against the backdrop of the labor struggle going on in southern California. There, some 10,000 UFCW-affiliated grocery workers are on strike, and another 60,000 have been locked out by employers. Berkeley Bowl managers have used that dispute to scare employees, issuing a memo declaring, "Don't let the union mislead you! A strike can happen here!!!"

Meanwhile the union effort has received support from Rep. Barbara Lee, Sen. Barbara Boxer, and several members of the Berkeley City Council. An Oct. 27 rally with Dolores Huerta is planned to generate further community awareness on the eve of the vote. Workers say they hope the public attention will help pressure Yasuda into acting neutrally toward the union, because the organizing drive is not aimed at killing the business.

"People are organizing because they care about this store," Feezeel said. "No one denies the store is awesome. It is one of a kind."

E-mail Rachel Brahinsky at rachel@sfbg.com.