Natural Grocers workers to vote on unionizing, claim poor treatment

Former employees of Natural Grocers and community members picketed the Norman location in solidarity with current employees who want to unionize.

Current and past employees are complaining that the chain has failed to meet the needs of its workers by offering subpar health care and failing to protect the rights of pregnant women and new mothers, among other things.

Willow McCartney, who left the chain last month, said she was ousted from the company permanently. She gave two weeks’ notice, but with two days left, she said a manager told her she had to leave prematurely.

“I asked HR on the phone, if I decide I want to come back, will I be able to? I was told no. I wasn’t hirable because they said I had an attendance issue,” McCartney said.

She said she had worked for the company for four years and had never had a single write-up. However, she said it was known in the store that she was pro-union.

“I think they were just trying to find a reason to get me out of the store as soon as possible because they knew I’m pro-union,” she said.

McCartney said she had faced discrimination at the workplace after it was learned that she had become pregnant and had her baby.

“Anytime I took a break or sat down, my manager was just on me. He’d ask, ‘Why are you sitting down?’ I had made complaints to HR, and they didn’t do anything about it,” she said.

Bridget Burns, a current employee, said six women had become pregnant while on the job since she joined the store eight years ago, and every time, they faced discrimination of some sort.

“There was a pregnant worker who was the dairy frozen assistant manager. She was over eight months pregnant and had turned in an accommodation because she couldn’t lift kombucha boxes,” Burns said.

She said the worker would be left to unload pallets of boxes. Burns said currently there is no system of checks and balances to report that.

After McCartney had her baby, she requested time to pump. Burns said she remembers seeing management give McCartney a hard time.

“The way her breaks with her pump were handled made me upset. It’s a basic human thing to understand she might need five extra minutes to clean her breast pump,” Burns said. “That’s not a luxury. It would cause a lot of issues for her baby if she didn’t sanitize correctly.”

McCartney said after making her request, management directed her to a small storage closet with no running air, and in what little space there was, a manager would bother her while pumping.

“It was just miserable in there,” she said.

Burns said Natural Grocers would make McCartney clock in and out for even five minutes while she cleaned her pump.

She said women are only guaranteed one week of paid leave, but birthing mothers can request additional disability time if they fill out paperwork.

“HR wouldn’t help with that process at all. I had to figure that out on my own,” McCartney said.

Katie Macarelli, director of Public Relations for Natural Grocers, responded to The Transcript’s media request for comment.

The Norman location’s employees had demanded to recognize a union at that location only and subsequently filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to commence an election process.

The election will be held 1-3 p.m. Thursday wherein 20 of its employees will have the chance to decide whether or not they want to become a union.

“Natural Grocers provides an environment that empowers Crew through regular engagement, nutrition education training, and opportunities for advancement,” Macarelli said. “Our compensation and benefits packages are world class. Our low turnover rates and commitment to promotion from within are a testament to a strong, positive workplace culture. We also foster a culture of open communication and mutual respect in our stores.”

Macarelli said that the claim that Natural Grocers mistreats pregnant and nursing mothers “couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“Natural Grocers not only complies with the law of Oklahoma, but we go above it, with even more generous leave and accommodation policies than the law requires including paid maternity leave,” Macarelli said. “Further, Natural Grocers ensures that nursing mothers are accommodated in the workplace and provides access to multiple private and sanitary spaces to do so – a reasonable person would not describe these spaces as a ‘closet.’”

Both Burns and McCartney said employees were required to attend captive audience meetings wherein the company hired Miko Penn with the Crossroads Group and Wildine Pierre Barrett, a labor relations consultant, to educate employees on unions.

Burns said the company spent $450 an hour, plus expenses to bring on Penn, who was recently featured on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

“It was exhausting and required,” Burns said. “Sessions can last one or two hours. They tell us why unions can hurt us and why they are bad.”

McCartney, who also attended the required sessions, said Natural Grocers misled employees by saying it was for educational purposes.

“She gave us this presentation on unions, which was really just about all the negative things about unions,” McCartney said. “If it was truly an educational session about unions, they would have presented both sides.”

Employees started a petition on Coworker.org, and as of May 8, it had garnered more than 4,200 signatures supporting the right of workers at the Norman location to start a union.

Macarelli said Natural Grocers cannot respond to particulars of any person’s particular employment circumstances given privacy concerns, but that it unequivocally denies that it disregards the welfare and advancement of its employees.

“In fact, Natural Grocers is known for our more generous pay and benefits when compared to competitors in the area. In the end, Natural Grocers takes its obligations under the law very seriously and does not retaliate against Crew members who support or engage in protected activity and supports employees’ rights to engage in concerted activities,” Macarelli said

She said the position of the chain is that it can best serve its workers without unions.

“When it comes to unionizing, Natural Grocers simply believes that having a direct working relationship with our Crew members better serves the Crew members’ interests without an intermediary union in the middle,” she said.

Paul McFarland, a frequent customer, said he had become concerned in January when a lot of his friends were no longer working at Natural Grocers, so he inquired where they went.

“I found out that they had either been fired or forced to resign, and I inquired why, and I was told because they were involved in organizing the union,” he said.

Burns said that since January, workers have been written up for “very minor” infractions.

“Back in January, our store manager was fired suddenly, and then 14 people were written up the next day. Our former assignment store manager wanted to step down to general staff and was told he would have to resign and reapply after being with the company for 10 years. He has been sorely missed by crew and customers,” Burns said.

McFarland was approached by the employees about whether or not he was interested in helping. He said he would, so he attended last week’s pickets on Thursday and Saturday.

On Thursday, Burns had just finished a captive audience session when she looked outside and saw the picket.

“I literally came out of a captive audience session and then walked to the front of the store and saw the picket in front of the store, and that solidarity meant a lot,” she said.

McFarland said he met new employees who replaced the fired ones.

“I saw some of the new faces, and I inquired about them. They [employees] said that they were brought in by the company to basically try to put the kibosh on this organization effort,” McFarland said.

After talking to employees, McFarland said he thinks they have enough to pass the vote tomorrow.

“Of the five founding principles that are posted in huge letters over the checkout line with a picture of the matriarch founding lady Margeret Isley, and two of those are commitment to community and commitment to our crew,” McFarland said. “This whole effort that the company is putting forward to suppress the ability of the crew to improve their conditions is antithetical to those founding principles.”

Burns also said she found the signage ironic.

“It’s still very much presented as this moral ethical alternative to other corporate grocery stores, but since they became a publicly traded company in 2012, we’ve seen a consistent shift to this more corporate mindset,” Burns said. “While we work for a company that claims that they empower health and have a commitment to crew and community, this behavior is a major disconnect.”