Labor Day in Noe Valley: Remember the Real Food workers who lost jobs trying to organize

Until 6 years ago, the "Real Food Company” was a popular community natural food store in the heart of San Francisco's Noe Valley on the main commercial street there, 24th Street. The store was sold by it's local owners in 2002 to an out of state corporation which, just prior to Labor Day 2003, closed it without warning, which cost all of the store's 31 employees their jobs. The closure shocked Noe Valley residents who had supported The Real Food store for over three decades. According to the corporate owners, a full-scale store remodel was in the works. Terminated employees, however, said that the closure was undertaken to prevent them from joining a union. After a hearing to determine the facts, the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) in San Francisco found that the workers were fired for attempting to join a union, and that decision was upheld by a second NLRB panel in Washington, D.C. A court appeal was filed by the store's owners. The workers have gone on with their lives, as they await a final court decision; their supporters started the Noe Valley Farmers Market; local businesses around the store have suffered from the loss of customers, and some closed; the community continues to do without a local organic food store; and this shuttered storefront is a reminder of it's former vibrant self. The Employee Free Choice Act is currently being considered by the U.S. Congress, and it would allow workers to join or form a union more easily than was the case 6 years ago when the Real Food workers tried to do so under current labor law.