(UFCW photo)
Mississippi Market Co-Op workers voted Wednesday to unionize. The organizing drive, which drew public support from several co-op members, brings together 158 workers at the grocer’s three St. Paul locations.
Workers voted 82-19 in favor of joining United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, which represents retail workers at Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski’s and other unionized grocers in the Twin Cities’ east metro.
Rowan Garrigan, a cheese buyer at the co-op on West 7th Street, said the landslide result shows that Mississippi Market workers are eager for a seat at the table in decisions that affect their working conditions.
“The market does a lot of things right, but without the employees getting much of a voice, it’s easy for things to go wrong,” she said. “A union contract guarantees we get to be heard, that we get a say in things.”
The organizing drive moved quickly after co-op workers approached Local 1189 last January, shortly after a group of workers confronted management about its attendance policy. Garrigan said workers were being docked points for staying home when sick, even when they had a doctor’s note.
“We tried doing things the official way, through the market,” she said. “And we just weren’t being heard.”
Frustration boiled over after a round of restructuring earlier this year – in which the co-op eliminated its butcher shop and reassigned meatcutters to other jobs – took workers by surprise.
“There was no consultation, no conversation,” Garrigan said. “Essentially, all the butchers and people in the meat department got demoted, and we lost a lot of good people because they left to do the jobs they wanted to do.
“That really solidified the need for a union.”
Within months, a majority of Mississippi Market workers had signed union-authorization cards, and supporters marched on their store managers Sept. 19 to request voluntary recognition of the bargaining unit.
Management refused, leaving workers to petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election. But before that vote was even scheduled, workers succeeded in turning out member-owners to speak in support of the union during the co-op board of directors’ meeting Sept. 24.
Garrigan believes the show of support discouraged management from employing the kind of “aggressive” anti-union tactics it used during an unsuccessful organizing drive in 2018.
“I don’t know how it could have gone, but I do think that shoppers helped the market know they were being held accountable,” Garrigan said. “Coming in straight away with strong community support sent a wonderful message.”
Public support for unions is at a 60-year high point, according to Gallup, and the retail sector, in particular, has seen a wave of organizing activity, from Trader Joe’s and REI to Starbucks and Apple Stores.
Mississippi Market workers are among about 300 new members who have joined Local 1189 in the last decade, thanks to successful organizing drives at Half Price Books, a local climbing gym and in the medical cannabis industry.
Retail workers are looking to unions for stability, accountability from management and better compensation, Local 1189 President Adam Evenstad said.
“Most workers coming to us feel that they are undercompensated for the market, and they’re right,” Evenstad said. “Through negotiation they’ve been able to make great strides in wages and benefits, but a lot of the contracts we’ve bargained have created policies that will make their workday better in general and a process to sit down and work out day-to-day issues, too.”
Younger retail workers, Garrigan added, are tired of being taken for granted by their employers.
“If people aren’t going to listen, it’s important that we get involved and make them,” she said. “There are a lot of things the average person doesn’t have much control over, but unionizing was something I could do, something I could do to make my community better.”
Evenstad said he doesn’t think the wave of interest in retail unions has peaked. In fact, he hinted that Local 1189 may have more organizing drives to announce soon.
“We’re working on our next victories already, and it’s our expectation that those are going to come with this surge of young hungry workers that want more voice and more power in their workplace.”
– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor
