At Bakers Local 114
Worker firings lead to union effort at Dave’s Killer Bread
B Y DON M C INTOSH
A SSOCIATE E DITOR
The story of Dave’s Killer Bread is
well-known in Oregon. Printed on
every bread bag, it’s a tale of redemp-
tion. Fresh out of prison and looking
back on a 20-year criminal history, ex-
con Dave Dahl is given a second
chance by his brother, Glenn Dahl.
Born again as a baker in the bread busi-
ness his father founded, Dave develops
organic bread recipes with cheeky
names like “Good Seed” and “Blues
Bread,” and hawks them at Portland
farmers markets under the slogan, “Just
Say No to bread on drugs!”
People pay $5 a loaf not just be-
cause Dave’s is great bread, but be-
cause they have good will toward the
brand founder and his story.
But for a growing roster of ex-em-
ployees, that feel-good narrative may
be getting a little stale. Workers inter-
viewed for this story say the company’s
rapid expansion is changing the char-
acter of what once felt like a family-run
business. Last June, the company hired
a professional manager, and began
cleaning house. Dozens of workers —
many of them ex-cons given their own
second chances by Dave Dahl — were
terminated. Those who remained were
afraid for their jobs, and one of them
made contact with Bakers Local 114,
which represents workers at competing
bakeries like Franz and Kroger.
Dave’s pays above average for a
nonunion bakery, says Local 114 Sec-
retary-Treasurer Terry Lansing, but still
at least $3 per hour less than union
workers at competing bakeries. And the
union bakers have greater job security
and better benefits.
As the wave of firings got under
way at Dave’s, several workers talked
about calling the union, but it was Dan
Turner who showed up at Local 114’s
office on Nov. 12, telling Lansing it
was time for the union to get involved.
Turner, 48, is also an ex-con, and
heard about Dave’s from Jacob Adams,
a friend from prison. In fact, about a
third of the company’s 260 employees
are felons. Employing ex-offenders —
and buying grain from local farmers —
has made Dave’s Killer Bread a fa-
vorite of local politicians and business
groups.
The company may employ ex-of-
fenders for altruistic reasons, but there
are also sweeteners. A federal tax credit
reimburses companies for up to 40 per-
cent of the wages of felons hired within
a year of their release — up to $2,400
per hire.
Hired in July 2010 to bag bread at
$10 an hour, Turner saw a company in
the grip of growing pains. NatureBake,
the company Dave’s late father
founded, had about 30 employees
when Dave joined it in 2004. But after
the Dave’s Killer Bread brand debuted
at the Portland Farmers Market in Au-
gust 2005, the company began rising
like fast-acting yeast. By April 2010, it
had over 120 employees. [Today it has
over 260.]
Turner, one month on the job, con-
tacted Local 114 to see if the union
might bring order to what he saw as
chaos in pay policies and workplace
rules. But it didn’t seem to Lansing at
that time that worker union support was
broad enough to succeed, given what
he knew about the company.
Back in 2006, NatureBake had been
located just 14 blocks from the union’s
Northeast Portland office. Local 114
president Georgene Barragan got a job
there, with the intent of spreading the
union gospel and furthering its mission
of organizing all bakery workers. But
it was not to be. On her first day on the
job, an engineer at NatureBake who
used to work at a union bakery recog-
nized her and went up to give her a hug.
Barragan’s cover was blown, and
Glenn fired her on the spot.
Then in June 2008, an unemployed
baker who formerly worked at the
unionized Kroger bakery went to apply
for a job at Dave’s Killer Bread, wear-
ing a Kroger jacket. Glenn ascertained
that he’d been a union member, asked
him if he knew Georgene Barragan,
and ordered him off the property. This
time, Local 114 filed an unfair labor
practice charge: It’s illegal to discrimi-
nate against an applicant because of
current or former union affiliation. Lo-
cal 114 won the case when the com-
pany agreed to post a notice for 60 days
and offered the worker a job. But the
worker opted not to work where he felt
he was unwanted.
So when Turner first contacted him,
Lansing thought it’d be tough to union-
ize Dave’s.
But Turner stayed on at the com-
pany, and worked his way into a $17-
an-hour job driving a bread truck.
When an off-the-job injury sidelined
him temporarily, the company gave
him a light-duty job in the office. He
became a trusted employee, and devel-
oped a rapport with the owners. He was
given keys to the office and a company
gas card, and sometimes was given a
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But by the fall of 2011, Turner says
worsening conditions at the company
drove him to seek out the union again.
Employees were given a $2-an-hour
raise, but lost their customary bonuses
in the bargain. Pay raises were based on
“reviews,” but whether, how, and when
reviews occurred were up to the man-
ager’s discretion, and workers would
wait months for promised reviews.
New employees would sometimes
come in at higher pay rates than expe-
rienced employees, and the seeming
randomness of the pay system con-
tributed to an impression of manage-
ment favoritism.
At the company, which won the
2011 Oregon Ethics in Business Award
for its “dedication to hiring and men-
toring ex-convicts,” and “constant fo-
cus on employee well-being,” em-
ployee rules were frequently changed,
and workers were disciplined under a
new “point system” which they didn’t
understand or have an opportunity to
appeal. New hires now were provided
by a temp agency, and didn’t become
employees of Dave’s for 90 days. And
now employees were being fired in
growing numbers. They needed help,
(Turn to Page 8)
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