Whole Foods Fires Two Union Leaders

It may be the season of giving, but all Whole Foods is giving out lately is a stocking full of harassment and retaliation.

Two Whole Foods Market workers, Debbie Rasmussen and Julie Thayer, who have been integral to the union organizing drive at the University Ave. store, were fired November 20--ostensibly for violating the store's "no free product" policy.

Rasmussen, who worked at the juice bar, mistakenly made a latté for a customer with soy milk rather then skim milk. Rather than pour her mistake down the drain, she offered it to Thayer who had just arrived for her shift.

Rasmussen and Thayer were immediately suspended. Both were fired the following day under the guise of enforcing the policy which workers say is applied inconsistently and frequently disregarded by many supervisors themselves.

"Given how involved Julie and I were in the organizing effort, there's no doubt in my mind that the firings were politically-motivated," said Rasmussen.

Firings No Surprise

"This is a common anti-union employer tactic to drum up charges and punish union leaders," said UFCW Local 1444 President Dan Welch. "Everyone should keep in mind that this is the same employer that said it respected its employees' rights to organize. If this in any indication, they obviously have very little respect for employee rights."

Whole Foods workers see the firings as part of the company's continued anti-union campaign and more specifically, as an effort to intimidate and demoralize workers as they start negotiations on a first contract.

"This selective enforcement when it benefits Whole Foods is not only unfair, it is also against the law," says Charlie Hoyt, a union activist and bagger at the store. "It has the effect of making employees believe that a given practice is acceptable--only to use it against them later when it is convenient--which it obviously was in this instance."

To protest the firings, the South Central Federation of Labor mobilized phone calls to store management from union members and store patrons, December 2, while workers inside the store signed petitions demanding that Rasmussen and Thayer be returned to their jobs.

"Their phones were just ringing off the hook all day long. They finally quit answering and put everyone through to voice mail," said Brendan O'Sullivan, a deli worker and bargaining committee member.

The workers' union has filed Unfair Labor Practice charges over the firings and, while an investigation is pending, the process of returning workers to their jobs is expected to take a number of months.

New Age Capitalist

Whole Foods, whose CEO John Mackey is notoriously anti-union, fought vigorously against the union drive last summer. The workers' determined effort paid off, however, when they won representation with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1444 in a July 12 union election. As the first ever in the 135-store nationwide chain to unionize, Madison's Whole Foods store took the national spotlight and sparked talk of organizing in other stores around the country.

As expected, Whole Foods contested the election hoping to delay the start of negotiations as long as possible in an effort to wear down the workers' resolve.

Negotiations for a first contract began finally, December 9, when the union presented its initial contract proposal. True to form, Whole Foods brought a high-priced New York attorney to the table from one of the nation's largest corporate law firms, Proskauer Rose, a firm quickly becoming known for its union-busting prowess.

Wait and see...

"I would have to characterize negotiations as civil and somewhat productive, although this was the first session and we won't be back at the table for a month," says O'Sullivan, a member of the union's bargaining committee.

Bargaining is sure to be long and difficult, says O'Sullivan. "But we're up for the struggle. We're strong, we support each other, and we know we need a grievance procedure to empower us in the workplace.

In the meantime, workers have begun to update their website (www.wholeworkersunite.org) redirecting its focus from the Madison store to one that serves as an online resource for workers in other Whole Foods stores around the country.