Co-Op Owners Picket for Democracy and Free Speech

For Immediate Release
May 21, 2011
Contact: 916-835-4330 humanrightsareacoopvalue [at] gmail.com

Pickets to target Sac Natural Foods Co-op SATURDAY,
SUNDAY; Owners call for Co-op Democracy and Free Speech
at Informational Picket Around Alhambra Store

SACRAMENTO - A group of Co-op Owners will hold a picket SATURDAY and SUNDAY around the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op because of a major internal fight regarding free speech rights of the members.

Police have been called after similar pickets in the past.

Pickets are set for this Saturday (12 noon) and Sunday (5 p.m.) at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, 1900 Alhambra.

Members claim they have been denied their rights as Members of the Co-op to place Member-initiated measures on the Co-op ballot.

They are also protesting the tabling ban now in place at the Co-op which allows only the viewpoint of the Israel lobby on the Israeli/Palestinian issue to be presented in front of the store.

The Co-op General Manager Paul Cultrera has prohibited several local groups from tabling in support of Palestinian human rights and banned any groups associated with them. Banned groups include Sac Co-op Owners for Democracy and Human Rights, Sacramento Area Peace Action, and Veterans for Peace.

Co-op Members have met the requirements to place the Human Rights Initiative and the Restore Co-op Democracy Initiative on the upcoming annual September Co-op ballot. In violation of its own Bylaws, the Co-op Board has not allowed either to be placed on the ballot.


BACKGROUND: At the May 18, 2011 Co-op Board Policy Committee meeting, the committee discussed the Restore Co-op Democracy Initiative and two Bylaw amendments, one proposed by the General Manager related to preferred shares and one proposed by a Board Member. While the Co-op Bylaws (Section 10.05) direct the Policy Committee to review Bylaw amendments, it gives them no authority over member initiatives or referendums (Section 10.06) . The Committee concluded that parts of the Restore Co-op Democracy Initiative would affect Board policies and therefore it was not acceptable. When the Committee was asked what would be appropriate for member initiatives, one Committee member suggested the bag policy. This was not clarified, but may refer to the use of plastic, paper or cloth bags by shoppers. One Committee member said that “it might be appropriate for an owner initiative to be directed a particular policy” and later said that initiatives could be about “anything that is not illegal or in contradiction to the Bylaws”.

Committee member Barbara Mendenhall made the following motion which the Committee then passed, the Committee recommends to the Board that Restore Co-op Democracy “initiative not be placed on the ballot because it obviates the Bylaws and Corporations Code.”
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