NORMAN, Okla. – A picket was organized outside the Natural Grocers store in Norman Friday afternoon in response to union-busting and firings that have affected the store after their union victory.
A little over two dozen workers, former employees, and supporters from the community came out to the picket.
The reason for the picket is Natural Grocers management has been union-busting workers with a slew of write-ups and firings with some workers being coerced out and some outright quitting.
At least four workers were fired from the store.
Free Press spoke to former worker Ben Renfrow about what’s been going on at Natural Grocers store in Norman.
“This time, they went through a long period where they didn’t write anyone up or any disciplinary action for a few months after we won the election. In my opinion, I think they were waiting because they didn’t want to start targeting people immediately after the election because it would be too obvious,” Renfrow said.
Renfrow said after a few months, management started issuing write-up after write-up, including a former worker who quit over being unreasonably written up after his mother had a heart attack.
Renfrow explained, “Some of the write-ups, for example, he had to take five days off because his mother had a heart attack, and when he came back they gave him disciplinary action for that. They made the excuse that it wasn’t done correctly, but if he would have called in sick it would have been fine.”
“So obviously I think the majority of people would be more inclined to care about their sick mother, and they punished him for that,” Renfrow concluded.
Free Press spoke to the worker, Kevin Williams, former Vitamins Manager, who took leave to care for his mother.
Williams says he quit as a matter of principle after working for the company for over six years.
“So what ended up happening is my mother had a heart attack in late September, so I ended up calling in for those days. Whenever I came back they let me work for about half of my work week then they called me into the office. There’s no one in person, actually. Its HR over the phone, and they say those days will be inexcused unless you apply for FMLA,” Williams said.
He says that they are “abandoning their core principle of care”.
“So I quit right then and there because they’ve abandoned their core principle, especially for a worker who has worked for them for six years,” Williams continued.
Bridget Burns, Natural Grocers worker and organizer of the picket, also spoke with Free Press.
“So a group of past employees and customers who organized this protest in response to particularly six people who were either fired or coerced into quitting in about a two week period, which for a staff of 19 is a really big shock,” Burns began.
Burns says that the store is a really “special place” to the community where workers work there a long time and really get to know their customers.
She said, “I’ve personally been here for nine years, so I’ve made a lot of connections in that time. We’ve definitely seen a more corporate shift in the last five years even though the company became a publicly traded corporation in 2012.”
Burns wants management to see that workers are not disposable, and the workers are what make the company what it is, and investment in the workers will benefit the company.
“For those of us who’ve been here a long time, I know what a lot of our customers’ dietary restrictions are, and their allergies are, their sensitivities are, I know about their grandkids and what holidays they celebrate, so I’m able to better serve them,” Burns explained.
The Natural Grocers union has filed multiple complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over the union-busting they’ve been dealing with.
This isn’t the only union-busting the workers at the Natural Grocers Norman store have had to deal with. Corporate has also hired union-busting consultants before they won their union election.
Alex Gatley covers labor activities in the state of Oklahoma.