Berkeley Bowl Employees Win Right to Unionize

More than a year after the organizing started, and nine months after they lost an initial vote to verify the union, Berkeley Bowl employees have won.

In an agreement reached earlier this week between the Berkeley Bowl and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Butcher’s Union local 120, the store agreed to officially recognize the union as the employees’ representative in a collective bargaining agreement. The agreement did not involve a vote but was instead negotiated privately between the two sides.

As part of the settlement, Berkeley Bowl is also required to “make whole” Arturo Perez and Charles McNally, two workers who were fired during the union organizing drive, “for any loss of wages or benefits they suffered as a result of our termination of them.” Both workers filed unfair labor practice charges with the local National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) because they said they were fired for union organizing.

“It’s a big step, but there is still a lot of work to do,” said Heine Aridmendi, a worker in produce. Workers now have to sit down with the union and the store and work out a contract, a process that can be drawn out if both sides can’t agree on the terms.

When contacted, representatives from Berkeley Bowl refused to comment.

Besides agreeing to bargain and settling with McNally and Perez, the store is required to post a notice to employees informing them of the settlement and agreeing not to engage in the same behavior that originally forced the union to file the unfair labor practice charges.

The settlement agreement comes just days before an administrative law judge was originally scheduled to hear a complaint issued by the NLRB concerning a list of unfair labor practices filed against the store by the union. The unfair labor pr actices included McNally and Perez’s case as well as a number of other claims that the store illegally tried to insure the union lost the vote.

The NLRB’s decision to issue a complaint meant they found enough evidence to proceed with the union’s clai m and put it before a judge. The complaint was also attached to a bargaining order which would have forced the Berkeley Bowl to bargain while the complaint was adjudicated, a process that can take months.

According to the union, a bargaining order is rar e ly is sued and was a sign of the severity of the store’s actions during the union drive. Michael Leong, assistant regional director for the local NLRB told the Berkeley Daily Planet when the order was issued that such a step can only be taken when there is enough evidence to prove there is no way to hold another election that would be fair.

Employees said they are enjoying their win but have already started think about how to ensure they are able to negotiate a fair contract.

“I feel it’s important that both sides bargain in good faith and that both sides remain diplomatic,” said Kevin Meyer, a checker at the store. It’s important “that we realize that it’s not adversarial and that we need not only to improve the conditions for the workers but als o to improv e the store as a whole.”

Workers are also trying to make sure everyone understands the importance of participation in the union. Employees want to make this union stick, unlike a previous union which was decertified at the old Berkeley Bowl back in the 1980s after only one contract term.

“The important thing is to further cultivate and foster that solidarity that management thought they crushed and use that unity to come out with a good contract that benefits every worker in the store,” said Meyer.

For McNally and Perez the win is bittersweet. Both said their back-pay settlements (which can’t be discussed because of a privacy clause) will help financially but don’t make up for the illegal actions the store used to fire them. According to the union’s lawyer, David Rosenfeld, neither one is being offered his job back.

“I really didn’t win, my feeling is that they just paid me off,” said Perez. “They don’t want to feel like they lost. They don’t want to think that I won.”

”It’s not about a settlement, it’s about justice. Now everybody knows about the Berkeley Bowl and how they work. They would rather lose a million dollars than give the employees benefits.”

Perez was originally fired because the store alleged he stole garbanzo beans. Employees immediately rose to his defense, countering that he was fired because he was an outspoken union supporter in the store’s produce section. Since being fired, Perez has struggled to support his family, including his wife who needs expensive medication for her heart condition. With the help of the union he was hired on as a traveling butcher and now makes union wages.

In the meantime however, he continued to support the Berkeley Bowl employees and insists that the win means more for them.

“The most important for thing for me is to help [the employees] get a union,” said Perez. “That’s why I got involved.”

McNally was fired months before Perez, back in June of 2003 for allegedly bribing someone to beat up a fellow worker. Both the union an d fellow employe es disputed the claim, calling McNally a well-known peace activist. They also pointed to the fact that like Perez, he was one of the more vocal supporters of the union.

Like Perez, McNally said he thinks the win is more important for wor kers sti ll at the store.

“I think it means a closing of a chapter in my and Arturo’s struggle at the Berkeley Bowl,” said McNally. “At the same time it means that we are going to move on and back up the workers that much more.”