A Co-op shopper signs a petition supporting living wages and affordable health care for employees. PHOTO BY RYAN BURNS
Co-op Conflict
Grocery store workers and management clash in contract negotiations By Ryan Burns
ryanburns@northcoastjournal.com
M
anagement and employees of the North Coast Co-op are locked in the most contentious labor negotiations they’ve had in years, and each side is grasping for leverage with the tools at hand. For management that means enlisting the help of Bradley W. Kampas, managing partner of the high-powered law firm Jackson Lewis, which specializes in labor law and union negotiations. Kampas has been on retainer since Co-op employees first unionized 13 years ago, but this is the first time since the original union contract was signed in 2001 that he’s flown up from his San Francisco office to participate directly in negotiations.
Employees, meanwhile, are enlisting Co-op customers in the fight. Last Saturday, a handful of workers gathered in front of the Arcata store and greeted shoppers with clipboards, petitions and free shopping bags emblazoned with pro-worker messages from Local 5 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. The petition asked shoppers to pledge support for workers “in their fight to maintain affordable healthcare and living wages ... in the face of unprecedented profitability and productivity.” John Frahm, a former Co-op employee who now leads the union’s local bargaining committee, said every contract negotiacontinued on next page
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northcoastjournal.com • North Coast Journal • Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013
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