Letter to all Open Harvest patrons, members and workers:
Submitted on Mon, 12/27/2010 - 6:45pm
Some of you may have heard the hubbub about the recent firing of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) member, Andrew Losh, from Open Harvest Cooperative Grocery. Losh was reportedly fired for not meeting an unspecified work quota that was continually raised as his production level did. He also reported several instances of worker mistreatment by the management. His firing and the subsequent campaign being waged by the IWW to have his job re-instated has highlighted some incongruencies in the practices and overall ethos of Open Harvest.
In their mission statement Open Harvest claims to stand for a number of progressive values: sustainable agriculture, equal opportunity employment, and support of local producers. Conspicuously absent from this litany of values is a dedication to providing a livable wage and benefits to workers, workplace democracy and other worker rights issues. As many progressives will agree, democracy is a fundamental value; democratic management mustn’t be limited to the political sphere, it should extend to all arenas of social life including the workplace. Judging from the practices of Open Harvest this is not a value they share. In fact, Open Harvest does not allow workers to have a voice in the workplace or allow them to be on the board of directors, thus ensuring a top-down hierarchy in the work environment that you would expect to find in any mainstream grocery store; this is not typical of cooperative grocers. Another value I would suspect many patrons and members hold is the belief that all workers should receive benefits and a livable wage. Again, Open Harvest does not seem to be dedicated to this value. The average entry-level wage for workers at Open Harvest is the nation’s minimum allowed: $7.25 per hour (via secret worker poll) and Open Harvest circumvents having to provide benefits by making sure that all non-management employees work under what is designated to be “full time”. To further illustrate the situation of inequality it should be pointed out that the Open Harvest management does receive benefits.
Yes, it is great to support fair trade, sustainable ag and local producers but is that where Open Harvest’s progressive values end? Surely most members and patrons of Open Harvest would agree that the workers of Open Harvest should also be able to afford to shop there and that they should have a say in the workplace. The hypocritical stance of supporting fair trade but not a fair wage for their own employees does not make sense and goes against the values of conscientious consumers who shop at Open Harvest because of the store’s stated commitment to ethics, rather than typical grocers who make no such claims. The good news is that Open Harvest members have taken action in the past that was successful and brought about positive changes in the store. In December 2009, members presented the Open Harvest board of directors with a signed petition asking that Open Harvest re-think its inclusion of items such as WD-40, non-rechargeable batteries, and non-recycled paper notebooks; this action led to the removal of these environmentally destructive products. We encourage all Open Harvest patrons, members and workers to voice their concerns to the management and use the limited democracy which is available (members can participate in Open Harvest meetings) to work toward progressive changes in Lincoln’s only cooperative grocer.
Signed,
Concerned Open Harvest Members and Patrons
Store Number: 475-9069
Manager: Jim Nelson
Store email: [email protected]
Next Meeting Date: January 3rd, 5:30 PM, at the Irving Rec Center - 20th and Van Dorn Streets. The Nebraska IWW will be present to discuss these issues, please join us.