The 24th Street Store

So, I'm over at Unbossed tonight checking out some of their union stories.

I ran into a link to a NLRB decision.

On August 25, Real Foods’ two directors, Remund and Nutraceutical chief financial officer Leslie Brown, met with Diaz [Sergio Diaz, Nutraceutical’s director of marketing and sales] and a Nutraceutical counsel and approved a motion to close and remodel the 24th Street store. On August 28, Remund informed Wilmot that the 24th Street store would be closed that night. Remund and Wilmot informed the night crew of the closure; other employees were delivered, via an overnight delivery service, notices of termination along with final checks and severance pay. Six key individuals were retained, while 29 employees were discharged and told they could reapply when the store reopened. There was no advance notice to the landlords, nor was any notice given to any vendors, who were either turned away or rerouted. Perishable goods were thrown or given away, and nonperishable goods were transferred to other stores.

Two days later, Diaz spoke with Dave Kloski, the manager of another of the Respondents’ stores. Kloski asked if the closure was “killing two birds with one stone.” Diaz responded, “yes, the timing is good for that.” Kloski also asked about the terminated employees, to which Diaz responded, “fuck ‘em.”

BTW, the NLRB was being nice when they didn't print the "uk" in Diaz's turn of phrase, I'm not so inclined.

The NLRB ultimately sided with the workers when they noted this:

Respondents were motivated by their employees’ union activity, rather than legitimate business reasons, when they chose to precipitously close the 24th Street store. This inference is supported by the credited evidence that Remund told two supervisors on separate occasions that Nutraceutical’s CEO would close a store if it unionized.

The NLRB decision on the 24th street store came on July 24th, 2007, the store was closed August of 2003. 4 years to feel any kind of justice, and yet, the appeals go on.

I'd like to think justice was served when the workers won their case, but with appeal after appeal, how do workers ever get a chance to make a difference in the work that they do? In this case, the unionizing efforts had most to do with employees wanting to continue to make a difference in the everyday lives of their neighbors. It's too bad that Neutraceuticals has their head stuck so far up their ass on this issue that they can't see the kind of good the union could have done in conjunction with the store. I can imagine how the two groups working together could make the store and neighborhood better; it's a shame that the company can't seem to provide any sort of loyalty to their employees or the neighborhood.

Basically, Neutraceuticals, you guys really suck.