Berkeley Bowl Workers Vote Not to Unionize

The lengthy saga of the Berkeley Bowl union-that-wasn't came to a quiet end last night, as ‘No' vote after ‘No' vote was tallied in the back of the store while a handful of representatives from both sides stood watching.

The store's employees, who went public with their efforts to organize early this summer, will not be unionizing, according to the results of the National Labor Relations Board vote held yesterday. One hundred and nineteen employees voted against forming a union. Only 70 voted in favor of it, delivering the store's management a comfortable victory.

"I have nothing to say right now," said the store's general manager Dan Kataoka after the votes were tallied. "I'm frazzled."

The store harbors "no hard feelings" about the union election, and "looks forward to working for a better Bowl," according to Human Resources and Business Director Lea Hyke.

But union organizers say management bullied store employees into voting against the union.

"There were five languages we had to translate to get our message out," said cashier Irami Osei-Frimpong, one of the leading union organizers. "The only message they had to get across was fear and intimidation."

Still, as news of the tally spread quickly throughout the store, the deli section broke out into applause, although the employees declined to comment.

Union organizers and store management had locked horns over forming an employee union since the beginning of June, when employees first announced their plan to organize in an attempt to improve the stores "impoverishing working conditions."

But a union would hinder the store's ability to operate in a manner that is good for employees, customers and the community as a whole, said Kataoka and the store's owners Glenn and Diane Yasuda in a statement Monday.

The battle quickly grew ugly as employees accused the store of hiring a union-busting law firm and firing employees who were union organizers. They filed charges with the labor board, alleging threats of layoffs and illegal intimidation tactics.

The Berkeley community came out in support of the workers, attending their rallies and offering to boycott the store. When employees staged a 15-minute walkout to protest a worker's firing last month, customers waiting in long checkout lines applauded and cheered.

Labor activist Dolores Huerta visited the store twice to encourage workers to sign union authorization cards and then to vote "yes" in the election. Both Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland wrote letters calling for an end to the store management's intimidation tactics. The City Council passed a resolution in support of the Bowl workers' efforts to organize.

Now that the battle has drawn the attention of state leaders, union organizers said they anticipate the community will not be pleased when it finds out the result of the vote.

"People shop here because organic food is healthy for you, the earth is treated well, the environment is treated well. But then you get to the final step of the people actually selling the food, and they're treated like nothings," said United Food and Commercial Workers organizer Jeremy Plague. "I think the community is done spending its hard-earned money here."

As for the workers, even the leading union organizers agree that they will continue working at the Berkeley Bowl, despite the vote's results.

"Their goal was to create a partnership," Plague said. "If I worked here, I would probably quit right now."

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