Nonunion Dave’s Killer Bread contracts work to union baker
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Dave’s Killer Bread is now made by
union workers … just not at the com-
pany’s own bakery. To meet rapidly ris-
ing demand, Milwaukie, Oregon-based
Dave’s Killer Bread now produces at
least two varieties of its $5-a-loaf or-
ganic bread under contract with union-
ized Safeway bakeries in Clackamas,
Oregon, and Richmond, Calif.
Northwest Labor Press readers may
remember the April 6, 2012, story
about Dave’s Killer Bread, which de-
scribed how workplace changes — and
as many as two dozen firings — led
some workers to seek out Bakery Con-
fectionery Tobacco Grain Millers Lo-
cal 114. Local 114 had tried to unionize
parent company Naturebake six years
before that, but union President Geor-
gene Barragan — who got a job there
in order to promote the union — was
fired on the spot by co-owner Glenn
Dahl when her cover was blown the
first day on the job.
This time, workers at Dave’s Killer
Bread were being fired at such a rate
that Local 114 Secretary-Treasurer
Terry Lansing tried an unusual strategy
to protect union supporters: He outed
them in letters to Glenn Dahl, so that
the workers might have the feeble-but-
better-than-nothing protection of the
National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB). Though it’s unlawful to fire
workers for supporting a union, the
NLRB dismisses most cases for lack of
evidence. For Lansing to publicly re-
veal some union supporters meant
Dave’s Killer Bread couldn’t say it did-
n’t know those workers were pro-
union.
But Lansing’s plan didn’t work. One
of the union’s most outspoken support-
ers, Dan Turner, was fired four weeks
after Lansing’s Feb. 2, 2012, letter iden-
tified him as a union supporter. Like the
brand’s founder, Dave Dahl, Turner
was an ex-con. Company managers
said Turner stole something from a
loading dock, but never specified what,
and didn’t file charges with police over
the alleged theft.
After the Labor Press article ap-
peared, dozens of workers and cus-
tomers commented online, and com-
pany owners Glenn, Dave, and Shobi
Dahl e-mailed a response to the news-
paper: “Recently,” they wrote, “some of
our employees have expressed interest
in forming a union at our facility, as is
their right. These employees remain
highly valuable members of our team.”
But when Lansing and several fired
workers showed up outside the bakery
the following week with union leaflets,
Glenn Dahl confronted Lansing, telling
him some of the workers he was help-
ing were terrible people.
Dave’s Killer Bread gets a lot of
public good will for its employment of
ex-cons (and up to $2,400 per hire in
federal tax credits). Ex-cons make up
about a third of the company’s work-
force. Lansing says they’re a uniquely
vulnerable population, because they
know their records make it harder to
U.S. Labor Secretary
Hilda Solis resigns
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI)
— Labor Secretary Hilda Solis,
who repeatedly declared herself
“the new sheriff in town” on be-
half of workers the last four
years, resigned her position on
Jan. 9, after talks with her family
over the holiday break about her
future.
“Leaving the department is one of
the most difficult decisions I have ever
made, because I have taken our mis-
sion to heart,” said Solis. “As the
daughter of parents who worked in fac-
tories, paid their union dues, and
achieved their goal of a middle class
life, and as the first Latina to head a
major federal agency, it has been an in-
credible honor to serve.”
AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka praised Solis for standing up
for workers’ and for coming down hard
on corporate violators, especially in the
job safety and health field.
“Hilda Solis brought urgently
needed change to the Department, put-
ting the U.S. government firmly on the
side of working families,” he said.
“Secretary Solis never lost sight of her
own working-class roots, and she al-
ways put the values of working fami-
PAGE 8
Two varieties of Dave’s Killer
Bread — “21 Whole Grain” and
“Good Seed” — are made both
by union workers at Safeway
bakery and by nonunion
workers at Dave’s bakery. If
“S8111” is printed on the plastic
bread clip, the loaf is made at
Safeway Clackamas bakery by
members of Bakers Local 114.
find employment if they’re terminated.
More than one ex-con fired by Dave’s
has returned to crime, and to jail.
Turner’s loss of employment played
a part in a downward spiral. When he
filed for unemployment, Dave’s Killer
Bread employed one of the nation’s
most prominent employer-side labor
law firms to oppose it. Defending
Turner were Lansing and the union’s
legal counsel. Turner’s claim was de-
nied by a judge, but granted on appeal.
But by then, Turner was behind bars.
Turner’s marriage ended in May,
and he returned to using drugs. On July
3, he was arrested in Clark County,
Washington, on charges of harassment,
possession of stolen property, check
forgery, and being a felon in possession
of a firearm.
Though Shobi Dahl had told the La-
bor Press he wouldn’t comment on per-
sonnel issues with specific employees,
he e-mailed the newspaper a week after
Turner’s arrest to divulge details of the
police report.
After his sentencing, Turner wrote a
letter to Lansing and agreed to share it
with this newspaper. In it, he copped to
having made bad decisions, but said he
continued to be grateful to the union for
standing by him.
Meanwhile, at Dave’s Killer Bread,
the rapid growth which had produced
so much upheaval continued. But fir-
ings slowed after workers were told at
an employee meeting that Shobi Dahl
would have to personally approve each
termination. In November, the manager
who workers said had begun the wave
of firings, was himself terminated.
In December, the home-grown fam-
ily-owned firm announced a deal with
New York-based Goode Partners LLC,
which will provide investment and help
the company to expand outside the
Western United States.
Local 114 filed six NLRB charges
alleging that Turner and six other work-
ers were fired unlawfully for union or
“concerted” activity, but all of the
charges were dismissed, and so was a
seventh charge that when Dave’s Killer
Bread installed cameras in the em-
ployee lunch room, that constituted il-
legal surveillance.
But Dave’s Killer Bread did settle
one NLRB charge on May 31, 2012.
The company had told workers they
couldn’t talk about the union at work,
and that they needed permission from
Human Resources before posting doc-
uments on the employee bulletin board.
In the settlement, the company agreed
to post a notice pledging not to say
those things. Lansing isn’t allowed on
the property, but believes the company
kept its word: Union authorization
cards remained up on the bulletin board
after pro-union workers put them there.
Lansing said the union would like to
represent workers at Dave’s, but that’s
for the workers to decide. For now,
there’s not sufficient support. And that
puts him in a Catch-22: On the one
hand, he wants to help Dave’s Killer
Bread employees win better conditions;
on the other, he also feels obliged to
treat the company as a nonunion com-
petitor that’s fighting for market share
against unionized companies that pay
workers $3 more an hour and offer bet-
ter benefits and job security.
Dave’s makes great bread, but con-
sumers have a choice, Lansing said.
Two varieties of Dave’s Killer Bread —
“21 Whole Grain” and “Good Seed” —
are made both by union workers at
Safeway bakery and by nonunion
workers at Dave’s bakery. If “S8111” is
printed on the plastic bread clip, the
loaf is made at Safeway Clackamas
bakery by members of Local 114. In
addition, unionized Franz Bakery has
come out with “Great Seed,” that’s very
similar to Dave’s “Good Seed,” but at a
lower price point.
“We think the public needs to sup-
port the good employers,” Lansing said.
lies at the center of every-
thing she did. We hope her
successor will continue to be
a powerful voice both within
the Obama Administration
and across the country for all
of America’s workers,”
Trumka concluded.
There was no immediate
word on whom President Barack
Obama would nominate to succeed
Solis.
The National Journal, a weekly
newspaper covering the Executive
Branch, said Steelworkers President
Leo Gerard was labor’s favorite for the
job. Another story on the Solis resigna-
tion called veteran Rep. Rosa De-
Lauro, (D-Conn.) — the runner-up for
the Labor Secretary’s post when Solis
got it four years ago. DeLauro is the
top Democrat on the House appropria-
tions subcommittee.
In her resignation message, Solis
thanked the department’s workers. She
added that together they helped imple-
ment the Obama Administration’s re-
covery from the Great Recession and
stepped up job retraining and labor law
enforcement in safety, health and wage
and hour areas.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
JANUARY 18, 2013