“We love working for Bloomingfoods and wish to make the work environment a better place for all the employees,” the group Unite Bloomingfoods said in a Facebook post Sept. 7. “The employees have gone too long waiting for our admin offices to take care of not only the company, but to take care of its workers.”
They also said the decision to unionize should not be taken lightly by Bloomingfoods, a local food cooperative.
About a month ago, workers at the co-op met with Scott Barnett, the organizing director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700 based in Indianapolis.
Barnett said the workers expressed unhappiness with the co-op’s administrative offices, which they claimed lacked consistent policy and failed to address concerns expressed by the workers. Barnett declined to comment about specific policies or concerns.
Unite Bloomingfoods said it is being purposefully vague at this time until the group is confident it can make such statements ?evident.
Union organizers have verified that Bloomingfoods has spoken with an ?anti-union consultant, Barnett said.
“When you hire a union-busting attorney, you’re only going to run a destructive campaign, especially when you consider that co-ops have a particular stance on social equality and follow these seven tenants,” he said.
According to Bloomingfoods’ website, “cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.”
The site also listed the seven cooperative principles, which have been taken down as of publication time.
The principles, as given by the National Cooperative Business Association, are voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, economic participation from members, autonomy and independence, education, training and information, cooperation among cooperatives, and concern for the ?community.
Awareness efforts will take place later this week in what Barnett is calling a community awareness solidarity action.
After garnering support, UFCW Local 700 and the unionizing workers will go through an election process that will be handled by the National Labor Relations Board.
The majority vote will decide whether UFCW Local 700 will represent the union. After representation, collective bargaining from the workers and Bloomingfoods can begin.
For now, however, Barnett said he hopes Bloomingfoods remains fair and neutral by letting the workers decide what they will. The organization does not wish to put Bloomingfoods in an ill light, a sentiment expressed by Unite Bloomingfoods.
“The effort to unionize Bloomingfoods is about our right to organize and form a collective bargaining unit,” Unite Bloomingfoods ?posted.
“It is NOT about creating an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality. The one thing everyone here wants is to make Bloomingfoods an even better place to work and shop.”
Neither unionizers nor representatives from Bloomingfoods were available for comment.
Bloomingfoods is a community-based organization founded in 1976.
Since its creation 38 years ago, the business has had a local focus and dedication to good food and health, according to the co-op’s website.
UFCW Local 700 is a union of 13,000 working people in the state of Indiana. The organization focuses mostly on retail but also seeks to improve working conditions for food processing and manufacturing.
