Port Townsend Food Co-op Employees Move to Unionize Amid Concerns Over Management Disconnect

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Photo by Nhatt Nichols  [/caption]

News by Nhatt Nichols

Enough workers at The Food Co-op in Port Townsend have signed union authorization cards to trigger a federally sanctioned unionization vote. Co-op employees cited a critical disconnect from upper management, including unexplained policy changes and a workplace climate where some workers feel unsafe, as principal reasons they are taking steps to join Commercial Workers (UFCW) 3000, a union that also represents Jefferson County civil servants, grocery, and healthcare workers. They will be the 20th food co-op in the State of Washington to seek better worker protections and more access to co-op democracy through unionizing.

Also cited were the results of a recent Member Satisfaction Survey, which indicates that 25% of member-owners feel less than welcome at The Food Co-op. Workers hope that representation will enable them to work more closely with co-op leadership to get it back on a course consistent with its stated values. For over fifty years, the co-op has been a welcoming food hub for Port Townsend, and workers believe their insight is crucial in preventing ‘mission drift.’

Corvus Woolf, a co-op employee of over five years who signed their union card, feels positive about the effort. “The co-op is full of an incredible number of brilliant, committed, passionate people, all of whom have great ideas, and by unionizing, we will all get a seat at the table to figure out policies that work with all of us,” Woolf said.

Currently, changes to the staff handbook don’t require input from staff, something that unionizing will change by making the handbook into a legally binding contract.

“Our paid time off system could be changed, our pay scale could be changed, our benefits, and we don't have any say in that. It might be really nice right now, but it could go away tomorrow,” Woolf said about their current situation.

Virginia Carpentier, who has worked at the co-op for over 20 years, is excited about the co-op unionizing. “I’ve seen unions demonized and disappearing, and especially now in this political climate, workers need to watch out for each other and make unions strong and more prevalent because that's all we're going to have,” Carpentier said.

This isn’t the first time Woolf has been part of a food co-op’s unionizing effort; they were hired to work at the food co-op in Ashland, Oregon, while the co-op was undergoing unionizing efforts. According to Woolf, staff approached that effort very differently than the Port Townsend Food Co-op staff.

“It was a similar size store, but people felt comfortable talking about it in the aisles, and even now, after we've gone public, there's a level of hushedness and fear around it,” Woolf said.

“Don’t you want to raise your family and to live in a world where workers are empowered, and their heads aren’t hanging low because they feel so powerless? Don’t you want to see people with pride in what they do?”  

— Virginia Carpentier, long term co-op employee

Woolf has noticed that, though employees are cautiously speaking about the unionization efforts in the store, organizing has produced a stronger relationship between the employees in general.

“Outside of this being a long and stressful process, the community connections between coworkers that I've seen build has been uplifting,” Woolf said, noting that they’ve seen more interactions between employees since the union organizing process began.

“It's been an uplifting process, and outside of the fact that we may be coming out of this with a contract, I see a critical mass of staff organizing together in a community sense that I think is going to be of a massive benefit for the community in general,” Woolf said.

Carpentier agreed, saying, “Don't you want to raise your family and to live in a world where workers are empowered, and their heads aren't hanging low because they feel so powerless? Don't you want to see people with pride in what they do?”

At the time of publishing, Port Townsend Food Co-op management has not responded to requests for an interview.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will hear from both sides before scheduling an election, probably in February. An NLRB agent will oversee an onsite vote, and if the majority of workers vote yes, workers and a union representative will begin bargaining with the co-op's upper management for their first contract.