PORTLAND, Ore.—Workers at a Pacific Northwest grocery chain that claims “progressive values” are charging that it isn’t so
progressive when it comes to them forming a union. Workers at New Seasons Market’s more than 20 stores have been trying to organize since October with the aid of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, and say that management has fired two pro-union workers, hired the union-avoidance firm Cruz & Associates, and threatened to cut benefits if workers unionize. The New Seasons Workers United union has filed a complaint against the company with the nonprofit B Lab, which certified New Seasons Market as a business that is a “force for good” and meets “rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.” “My hope with this complaint is that B Lab will sincerely look at New Seasons Market and investigate,” worker Sean Lilly said in a statement. “The company has chosen to spend their money on union-busting versus actually living up to their branding as an employee friendly, sustainable business.” New Seasons Market told Willamette Week Dec. 7 that it “has a strict no-retaliation policy.”
