Whole Foods Market in Madison,
WI Votes for Union

7/13/02
From <manski@greens.org>
THIS IS THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL UNION-ORGANIZING DRIVE AT WHOLE FOODS ANYWHERE
IN THE U.S.! THE FIRST DOMINO HAS FALLEN!

Hi folks, a note from Kathy,

David just called from Whole Foods here in Madison, Wisconsin where they
voted today
on whether or not to form a union. The union voters won, 65 to 54. This
is quite something, the very first of over a hundred stores in this
aggressively anti-union chain to go union. And the people who work there
are so very young, they could be our grandchildren, but every generation
seems to have to find its own way to the decision that it is only with a
union that one has any real protection or voice on the job.

Wednesday night there was a mandatory all-employee meeting held at the
store to convince workers to vote against the union. The following is a
portion of an email we received late that night from a gal who works at the
store; she is one of the principal union organizers in this campaign:

"Hi David -

The [all employee] meeting didn't get out until 12:30 AM, and I figured
that was too late to call you with an update.

Guess what?! John Mackey (CEO and founder of Whole Foods, and author of
that oh-so-brilliant position paper/right-wing diatribe, entitled "Beyond
Unions") came to the meeting. We'd anticipated this a few weeks ago, but
then we'd heard that he wasn't going to be there, so it was kind of a
surprise.

Basically, it was exactly as we'd expected -- a lot of apologizing, blaming
it on "store and regional leadership," and asking for another chance.
There were about 6 regional and corporate people there, "answering
questions," and they very much dominated the meeting.

Workers were only allowed to speak if they had questions (despite the fact
that in the opening remarks, the acting "store team leader" emphasized how
everyone's perspectives and experiences should be validated and respected).
Every time someone asked a question, they took turns answering (or dancing
around the answers mostly), and took forever to get to the next person on
the stack.

I think it was clear to most people there that it was ridiculous -- I don't
think it was very effective in turning voters away. So that's good."

I guess I'm surprised that the plea for "another chance" wasn't more
effective. It really is quite stunning to win this election! So now the
workers turn to trying to get a contract, which is management's next
opportunity to stonewall. Unlike Canada, where a mediation board puts a
contract in place if a year goes by and the two parties can't agree on a
contract, management here can stall forever in the hope that the workers
will just give up. We'll keep you posted, since a great deal of idealism
brought about first the union campaign at this store by these very young
people, and now has led to this vote for the union.

Adelante con esperanza! Kathy McElroy