NLRB faults Real Foods - fired IWW union members vindicated four years late.
Submitted on Tue, 08/14/2007 - 2:08pm
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. The union referred to in the article is the IWW. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
By George Raine, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer, August 4, 2007 The National Labor Relations Board has concluded that the owner of the Real Foods store in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood committed a series of unfair labor practices in 2003 when the store was closed and 31 employees, who had begun discussing the possibility of forming a union, were fired. A three-member panel of the board in Washington upheld the 2005 decision of an administrative law judge in the San Francisco district, James Kennedy, who ruled that the employer's acts were associated with nascent union organizing. The store on 24th Street remains shuttered, a farmers' market has been organized to provide the organic produce the store once sold and many of the fired workers have moved on with their lives. But even with the board's ruling, issued July 24, the matter is far from resolved. Both sides - lawyers representing fired workers, and lawyers for the owner, Nutraceutical Corp., a Park City, Utah, manufacturer of nutritional supplements - filed appeals this week with federal appeals courts. Almost four years ago, the owner said the closure was part of a planned remodeling, but Kennedy, the administrative law judge - and now the labor board - concluded the move was in response to the workers' exploration of union representation. As part of the ruling, the employer is instructed to put the former employees on a preferential hiring list when the Noe Valley store reopens, or offer them positions as they become available at the two other stores it operates in the city, one on Stanyan Street and one on Geary Boulevard. The owner continues to deny that the company was motivated by an anti-union philosophy, said San Francisco lawyer Stephen Hirschfeld, who said his clients are "really disappointed the board did not agree with the basis of our appeal." Hirschfeld filed an appeal Friday in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, while David Rosenfeld, an attorney for one of the fired workers, filed an appeal Thursday in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The courts will decide in which circuit the matter will be considered. Hirschfeld said the court may not reach a resolution for several years. Meanwhile, the store remains closed following a dispute between Nutraceutical and its former landlords over renovation and who should be responsible, Hirschfeld said. Ultimately, Nutraceutical bought the property and has made a decision to demolish it and replace it with a mixed-retail building that would include a Real Food store, he said. But the boarded-up facility became a flash point for the Noe Valley community, and neighborhood activist Peter Gabel, a law professor at New College of California, said Friday that the board's ruling provides "an opportunity for us to come together to support the progressive values of 24th Street." He added, "We have tried to take a decisive stand in support of the workers and support the idea that in creating our own community farmer's market, we do it in the spirit of the community we stand for." Hirschfeld said he, too, is a Noe Valley resident and that while he was "disappointed and shocked" by the store's closure, he learned "there was another story" behind the shuttering. As is, the boarded-up structure "is not positive for 24th Street," said Hirschfeld. "The client knows that and wants to reopen." 