Mrs. Green”™s Natural Market in Mount Kisco is putting eight fired employees back to work after sixth months of picketing and calls to boycott the store by a local labor union.
United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 supported the fired workers, saying they had been let go as part of a union-busting effort by store owners after workers at Mrs. Green”™s unsuccessfully attempted to unionize last year. The company said the firings were part of a reorganization under new management.
The workers were receiving training and would be back on the job in the same or equivalent positions the week of July 28, according to the company. David Ramirez, one of the reinstated workers, said he hoped the discussion about labor relations wasn”™t over now that he and his colleagues had their jobs back.
“Our fight has been long, but it is not over,” he said. “We ultimately want and need protection at work, so we and all our coworkers don”™t have to work in fear that if we ever stand up for our basic rights, we will be on a picket line for six months, fighting for what we all should be guaranteed at work.”
The employees were rehired just ahead of a scheduled hearing with the National Labor Relations Board, Joe Fedele, a spokesman for Local 1500, said. The company named a new CEO, Pat Brown, this month, and the company said Brown”™s appointment had more to do with the resolution of the dispute than the pending hearing.
John Collins, a spokesman for Mrs. Green”™s, said the market gives bonuses and discounts to hourly employees, which the company calls “associates.” It offers a profit-sharing program when the store exceeds its goal two quarters in a row.
“Store leadership embrace these values and core principles and has stepped forward to do the right thing for its associates,” he said.
Mrs. Green”™s, an organic and sustainable product market, opened its first location in Briarcliff Manor in 1990. The company, originally owned by Harold and June Hochberger, grew to 11 locations by 2007, when it was bought by Planet Organic Health Corp., a Canadian company and owner of several supermarket chains looking to establish a foothold in the U.S. organic market. Planet Organic declared bankruptcy in 2010, according to a November 2013 Chicago Tribune report on Mrs. Green”™s expansion into the Midwest. After the bankruptcy, Planet was acquired by a private equity group called Catalyst Capital Group, the Tribune said.
According to the labor union, new management took over at the Mount Kisco location in December 2012. The union said employees filed for a union election in May 2013 but lost by three votes. Although it was an anonymous vote, accusations later followed that ownership had illegally met with employees prior to the vote in an attempt to discourage them from voting in favor of a union.
Charges were filed with the labor board and employees met with local elected officials and state Assemblywoman Sandy Galef about their treatment, according to a blog post from Tony Speelman, secretary-treasurer of Local 1500. In a settlement in November, Mrs. Green”™s agreed to post for 60 days a notice of employees”™ federal labor rights. During that posting period, according to protest organizers, 10 employees were fired. (Two of those employees have since moved on and did not seek to be rehired.)
“The fired workers were not only leading supporters of the union in the election, but were the same workers who met with politicians in the Mount Kisco area for help,” Speelman wrote in his blog posting.
The company said that during the same time span as the union vote and labor rights settlement, it conducted a nationwide store-performance review and tagged the Mount Kisco location as “underperforming.” It invested $3.5 million to renovate the location and met with workers. Representatives said the firings were the result of that reorganization and that although several of the employees were later revealed to be union supporters, several of those fired had not been active in the unionizing effort.
Mrs. Green”™s is planning to expand in the next two years with a slew of new locations. The company has opened branches near Princeton, N.J., and in New Canaan, Conn., and will open its first New York City store in the West Village in the coming months.
Another union election for employees at the store will take place in October. If a second vote fails, by federal law another vote can”™t be held for 12 months. Local 1500 represents workers at Pathmark, D”™Agostino”™s, Fairway and Stop & Shop grocery stores.
