Did You Know? GreenStar Workers Are Organizing a Union
During this past year, the Tompkins County Workers’ Center (TCWC) has
been strongly supporting a group of workers wanting to organize a union
at GreenStar Coop in Ithaca. Some of
the reasons that unionizing workers point to as their reason to
organize include: insufficient job security, unfair or inconsistent
wages, blatant favoritism, and unprofessional conduct from managers. The
obstacles to organizing that workers have experienced from management
have included intimidation, retaliation, verbal abuse, threats, and
attempts to disqualify workers from voting in a union election by
providing them with managerial duties. These have occurred in many
forms, such as closed-door meetings and personal conversations with
workers that include “advice†to stay away from any and all union talk
happening at GreenStar.â€
On Thursday, June 27th, the TCWC facilitated a meeting that
took place with the GreenStar Union Organizing Committee; GreenStar
management and Board; GreenStar Members/TCWC Members (including a few
investors in GreenStar’s expansion); and Communication Workers of
America (CWA) Local 1111. The reason for the meeting was our collective
concern about how GreenStar was responding to the Organizing Committee’s
campaign for a union that initially indicated an anti-union stance from
the Coop.
During the meeting we collectively addressed our concerns of ongoing
retaliation for union activity and were able to get GreenStar management
to agree to a policy of noninterference with our growing union effort.
This agreement included a clear statement of support for workers’ right
to organize, and a commitment to retrain managers to cease intimidating
workers for their support of the union, as well as instruction not to
provide their opinion on unionizing. Additionally, management has
committed to sending a letter to staff clarifying that any worker who is
asked to be privy to hiring decisions will not be disqualified from
voting in a union recognition election.
The especial significance of the TCWC engagement with this unionizing
effort, as with all efforts that initiate with the TCWC, is the
importance of community engagement with unionizing efforts. That is,
many attempts to unionize on a local, regional, and national level tend
to not engage with the larger community. The fact of the larger
community being organized by the TCWC, as well as the community nature
of GreenStar Coop, offers a unique opportunity in that many TCWC
Members, as well as GreenStar Members (numbering over 12,000 people)
have a stake in the operation of a community-owned business, a unique
phenomenon in our society.
The TCWC promises to stay on top of how the unionizing campaign
continues to develop and deepen at GreenStar. We are committed to
supporting the rights of workers to organize in an environment of worker
democracy, and engage with management as things go forward.
Stay tuned to developments as they unfold!
