This is legacy information. Please refer to Whole Foods for more information...
"I can't help but notice stern notices on the doors (of Wild Oats stores) warning against solicitation and distributing literature ... often a signal of authoritarian management or an aggressive anti-union policy."
—Robin Garr's Restaurant Reviews February 2003
"...like Whole Foods, Wild Oats is determinedly anti-union..."
Roddy Scheer, emagazine.com July-August 2003
New handout! PDF format, 8.5 x 11 black and white
Here is a JPG version of same.
The Wild Oats natural foods chain claims to be progressive, enlightened, environmentally friendly, worker supportive. The truth is, Wild Oats is rabidly anti-union.
Use this image to link to this page (click for URL)
I invite you to become familiar with their anti-union history, learn about their recent egregious attack on a union organizer (over bananas!), and then let Wild Oats know what you think of them! Here is the very excellent CityBeat article.
Comments, posters and links are below.
By Stephanie Dunlap - Cincinnati CityBeat, Cincinnati's News and Entertainment Weekly, July 30, 2004
Tom Kappas believes he was fired from Wild Oats in order to suppress his and others' efforts to unionize the Norwood store. (By Dimitris Katsaounis)
Wild Oats' Norwood store might be more concerned with the fair treatment of coffee farmers a continent away than with fair treatment of its own workers. Though the sign in front of the natural foods store in Rookwood Commons trumpets the fair trade coffee inside, its store director fired Tom Kappas, who'd been openly leading an employee union drive, for what many consider a trumped-up charge: stealing 19 cents worth of fruit.
Before Kappas, a two-year veteran of the produce department, ended his Friday night shift July 9, he rang up a bag of tortilla chips, a bottle of Samuel Smith Organic Lager and $.19 in produce. According to Kappas' written statement -- which he provided to CityBeat -- the manager on duty for the night stopped him before he left and asked to search his bags and see receipts. Kappas produced the fruit and the paperwork.
The manager said Kappas shouldn't have discounted the fruit, but Kappas told him that the produce manager allowed his employees to buy old or damaged produce at 10 cents per pound. Kappas then threw the produce in the trash and left.
The next day Kappas says he was called before three managers, including Store Director Fred Meyer. "Feeling a bit uncomfortable, I asked for a union representative to be present before I could answer any questions," his statement says.
He claims Meyer said there wouldn't be any questions because he was being terminated for trying to steal the fruit.
The produce manager denied allowing discounts on waste produce, so Kappas clocked out for the last time a few minutes later. That manager later admitted he "made a mistake," Kappas says.
He sure did, say other Wild Oats employees. The informal policy of discounting produce was widely understood and practiced but unwritten, according to half a dozen workers who spoke with CityBeat on condition of anonymity. (The Wild Oats employee handbook says workers must get permission from the regional legal department to speak to the press.)
Ironically, say union supporters, a union contract would ensure that Wild Oats workers wouldn't be subjected to capricious firings or unwritten workplace rules.
'Do not believe a union is appropriate'
Employees interviewed include members of the Wild Oats job branch of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Kappas had been an IWW delegate for eight months.
Two employees approached at random outside the store were sympathetic to Kappas; one said she also was a union member.
Although individual employees might be IWW members, the union doesn't officially represent the employees until the store recognizes it or the majority of employees vote to join it.
Meyer referred inquiries to Wild Oats' corporate office in Boulder, Colo.
"I can tell you with 100 percent assurance and confidence that Mr. Kappas was not terminated for union activity," says corporate spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele.
Firing someone for union activity is considered an "unfair labor practice" under the National Labor Relations Act. Wild Oats branches have been found guilty of similar anti-union behavior at least twice before, when courts ordered stores in Ladue, Mo., and Norwalk, Conn., to cease their anti-union behavior and to post notices that employees have the right to organize, form, join or assist any union.
The Norwalk store was successfully unionized. Wild Oats sold it five months later, and today there are no unions at the company's 106 stores nationwide.
Explaining the national chain's position, Tuitele said, "Wild Oats is not anti-union, but we are pro-employee."
Page 15 of the employee handbook reads somewhat differently: "We do not believe a union is appropriate for our employees and we will strongly oppose an organization attempt by any union." Wild Oats wasn't kidding about mounting strong opposition, employees say. When managers learned in November that Kappas was trying to organize, they distributed anti-union literature, promoted some union members to management and systematically harassed others.
"There's a lot of other people who have quit, but there were at least three union members who have quit based on the way they were treated," one employee says.
Fellow employees say no one's buying the company line.
"Most people, I think, are not under the delusion that Tom was fired for discounting bananas," another employee says.
'Carry on that activity'
Union members and sympathizers now weigh their options, which include picketing at the Norwood store and at the grand opening of a new Wild Oats store in Mason, gathering employee and customer signatures on petitions and filing an unfair labor practice charge.
Mark Damron, secretary of the IWW Ohio Valley Organizing Committee, had been helping Kappas lead the union drive. He says 10 Wild Oats workers already carry the red union card and twice that many seem interested.
Members of the IWW, also known as "Wobblies," aren't recruited by paid organizers as in larger unions. Instead, they organize themselves with the help of people like Damron. Union dues are low, from $3 to $18 a month, and the IWW constitution forbids automatically deducting dues from paychecks.
"What makes the IWW radical is that it never backed down from its initial stand that there is a war between the employing class and the working class," Darmron says.
"In general, I don't like unions," says one Wild Oats worker. "I see them as the lesser of two evils but still an evil. But the IWW is on the store level. It's autonomous, grassroots."
He says he'll definitely join the union now that Kappas is gone.
"When they fired him, they were squelching an activity, and the obvious response is to carry on that activity," he says.
Employees say fellow workers are angry and scared. Some who previously considered a union unnecessary are realizing how little job security they really have.
"I don't understand how a company that has this image and mantra can do something so completely oxymoronic to that image and it's just pushed under the rug," says one employee.
She joined the union to support workers' rights and now is considering quitting Wild Oats. Kappas' treatment was blatantly illegal, she says.
"Just because it's not based on race or sex doesn't mean it's not discrimination," she says. Even if Kappas is reinstated, she wants people to know what goes on in "this environmentally-friendly company that doesn't recycle."
Though Kappas isn't banking on getting his job back, he hopes his efforts haven't been for naught. "I'd like to see, even if I'm not reinstated, the job branch use (the firing) to organize and not to disintegrate," Kappas says.
Please visit the CityBeat Story Permanent Link
(Katsaounis graphic is from the original article)
"The Boulder-based Wild Oats natural supermarket chain is a notorious union-buster."
Susan Zakin, Tuscon Weekly
So, do you think Wild Oats cares?
They certainly care about the mice that wander into their stores...
Wild Oats Stops Killing Mice With Glue Traps
When PETA discovered that the Wild Oats natural foods markets were using glue traps to capture and kill mice in their stores, we wrote the CEO a letter and sent graphic photos of several mice captured and killed on glue traps. We also posted an action alert asking our members to contact Wild Oats. As a result, the company agreed to remove glue traps from its stores and will work with us to develop a protocol to humanely capture and release rodents from their stores.
That's nice, Wild Oats. Saving helpless little animals.
What a pleasant progressive image you create for your customers!
But come on Wild Oats, what's with the way you treat the people who stock your shelves, sell your products, assist your customers?
Should unjustly fired workers also send glossies to the CEO, maybe pics of their families visiting the food bank?
Folks, Wild Oats isn't listening. Yet.
In fact Wild Oats is laying it on thick. They are telling people:
Our employees would have to have a vote in their store to be represented by a union and, to date, our employees in our Cincinnati store have not felt it necessary to take that action. At Wild Oats, we believe we offer our employees competitive wages and a good benefits package and can promote and reward employees for their hard work.
Sure. Employees have free choice and they "have not felt it necessary" to unionize. Yup.
You don't suppose Wild Oats coercing their Cincinnati employees with these words on an official handout made a difference?
THINK BEFORE YOU SIGN
PLEASE DON'T SIGN A UNION AUTHORIZATION CARD
With a union, all of your wages and benefits are negotiable. You can end up with [...] even less than you have now.
Wild Oats also tells those who inquire about the company's union stance,
We also offer direct access to management and have a confidential 1-800 hotline for employees to air any grievances. Therefore, at this time, none of our employees in our 106 stores have voted to be represented by a union. Thanks, Matt Martinez Customer Service Coordinator 1-800-494-9453
Ahhh, but this is deceptive. You see, Wild Oats employees have organized, only to be sold off.
"How about this image? Wild Oats in Westport, the health food supermarket chain, is being hauled into court a second time by the National Labor Relations Board. Management again seems to have threatened some of its workers who favor a union. Previously Wild Oats had sold off its Norwalk store, where the union had already succeeded."
Bill Collins, National Public Radio 2002
Why, Wild Oats? When you are buying so many stores, why sell off the one location where employees joined a union?
Afraid that employees at other locations might realize they can have justice too?
Ahhh, but what a sad sort of corporate justice you honchos at Wild Oats believe in. It abruptly solves the problem of unions— until your customers find out what you are up to.
Here's the truth.
In two previous cases, National Labor Relations Board decisions have ordered Wild Oats to cease and desist from “harassing employees,” from “coercively interrogating” employees* and from “interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the exercise of (their) guaranteed rights."**
* (Cases 34–CA–9243 and 34–CA–9278 May 29, 2003) ** (Case 14CA24815)
Yet they persist.
Here are details from Employment & Labor Law Department Update, October 2003:
The Food Service Manager threatened kitchen and deli employees with reduced hours and a possible sale or closure of the store if they voted in favor of union representation. This same manager also interrogated an employee concerning the union sentiments of others, promised the same employee a promotion and a raise for convincing co-workers to support the employer in the representation election, and created the impression that employees were under surveillance when he questioned them regarding their attendance at a pizza party held at the union's office. The ALJ also found that the employer's CEO made an unlawful (albeit implied) promise of benefit when he told employees that he would take care of their problems at work.
Here's discussion of the issue from the Rocky Mountain News:
[U]nions have appeared at Wild Oats stores. In May 2003, the NLRB found that Wild Oats had violated the law by attempting to stop workers at a Connecticut store from organizing in early 2000.
The suit said the company had harassed employees trying to unionize and had promised employees better wages and benefits if they voted down the union.
Workers voted the union in anyway, and shortly thereafter Wild Oats sold the store - a sale that was planned before the vote, Tuitele said. When the 2003 decision came down, the company had to mail letters to former employees containing information it would have had to post if it still operated the store.
"The company is known to be against trade unions..."
Zuercher Kantonalbank, Wild Oats Markets February 2003
Please don't allow a fellow worker to be fired over a couple of bananas, just because he believes in the union!
Contact Wild Oats in Cincinnati, nationally, and in your community to press this issue.
Wild Oats in Cincinnati— Norwood— please call 513–531–8015 or email the Store Director – Fred Meyer edmstrdir@wildoats.com
Hmmm... Is this evidence that we are having an impact? They have shut down their store director's email account. Our emails are all rejected now:
Your message
To: edmstrdir@wildoats.com
Subject: Wild Oats Policy
Sent: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 19:25:00 -0600did not reach the following recipient(s):
edmstrdir@wildoats.com on Mon, 16 Aug 2004 19:23:14 -0600
The recipient name is not recognizedIgnore the email address above.
Call, or send an email to the national office, which is located here:
Wild Oats Home Office
3375 Mitchell Lane
Boulder, CO
80301
FREE CALL! Wild Oats customer service— 1-800-494-WILD or email info@wildoats.com
Sign the petition!
http://www.petitiononline.com/cincyiww/petition.html
The Wild Oats national chain website is:
Here is the Wild Oats store locator.
You can contact the Wild Oats board of directors here:
https://www.corpcomcontact.com/emailNET/oats/sox301.aspx
For the latest information, see Cincinnati IWW and follow the links— [Unions | Wild Oats Branch].
You can find anti-union propaganda distributed to employees of Wild Oats, a petition that you can sign, and other information here.
The Industrial Workers of the World Website has some information too.
"...painfully plain is the jaunty unconcern that many employers show while violating labor laws. This unconcern appears most often in attempts to rebuff unions.
"[Wild Oats] doesn’t want any rotten apples in its pesticide-free, anti-union, 100-store barrel."
Bill Collins, National Public Radio 2002
Wild Oats Attempts
To Crush Union
Click the image to print as JPG. Right-click to save as a file.
For a better printout, here is the Wild Oats Trips poster in PDF color, and the Wild Oats Trips poster in PDF black & white. The files are a bit large, please allow time for download.
