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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2018)
PAGE 8 | March 16, 2018 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ...New Seasons: UFCW 555 campaign focuses more on Endeavor Capital From Page 5 with the unbiased information they need to make well-in- formed decisions, we looked to an outside resource—Cruz & Associates. The voluntary infor- mation sessions in stores, of- fices, and our central kitchen were completed in November, were attended by a large number of New Seasons employees, and multiple staff members in atten- dance shared that they found the sessions helpful.” Unbiased? Objective? Cruz & Associates is neither of those things, and New Seasons exec- utives know that full well. If New Seasons wanted unbiased information, it could have pho- tocopied easily understood ma- terials from the NLRB and saved a lot of money. If it wanted objective, it could have invited union organizers, letting workers hear from both sides. Who’s calling the shots Ultimately it may not even be up to McFarland and Hoffman what approach to take to the union campaign, because they serve at the pleasure of New Seasons Market LLC corporate board of directors. That board consists of New Seasons founder Stan Amy, Scott Rose- man from the company’s New Leaf subsidiary in Santa Cruz, and Stephen Babson and Bradaigh Wagner from Endeav- our Capital. Presumably it’s Endeavour that calls the shots, because the private equity firm owns a 64 percent share of New Seasons. Working out of offices in four cities, Endeavour assembles pools of cash from investors, and then buys stakes in mid-sized pri- vate companies throughout the Western United States. Its goal is to grow the companies and then sell them for a profit, typically within five to 10 years. All told, Endeavour manages $2 billion in assets. New Seasons is just one of the 28 companies Endeavour has stakes in. Others include the ZoomCare chain of clinics, and union employers like Vigor In- dustrial and Seattle’s Metropoli- tan Market grocery chain. Lately, UFCW Local 555 has begun a campaign to focus greater attention on Endeavour Capital. It launched a web site called High Cost Endeavour (highcostendeavour.com) criti- cizing several companies in its portfolio for a variety of alleged legal and ethical lapses. And on March 1, Local 555 staff and members of New Sea- sons Workers United showed up with flyers and banners outside the exclusive Multnomah Ath- letic Club. There, Babson —the Endeavour managing director and New Seasons board member — was giving a keynote speech at Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Cup Northwest, a shark-tank style competition in which business and finance stu- dents compete to solve business dilemmas involving mergers and acquisitions, investment bank- ing, and private equity. [No word on whether they came up with a strategy for Endeavour to cash out its New Seasons investment.] Then on March 6, the union- funded group Northwest Ac- countability Project — drilling down even further into Endeav- our’s ownership structure — held a press conference outside the Concordia neighborhood New Seasons store calling on New Seasons to “cut ties” with MJ Murdoch Trust, because Murdoch funds groups like the fiercely anti-union Freedom Foundation and Alliance De- fending Freedom, which defends religious conservative business owners who refuse service to gay customers. In their email to the Labor Press, McFarland and Hoffman said there are no direct ties be- tween New Seasons and The Murdock Trust, and Murdock Trust receives no money from New Seasons Market. “Murdock Trust is just one of over 100 investors in Endeavour Capital Fund V. Their investment represents less than 1.5% of En- deavour’s Fund V, which holds an ownership interest in New Seasons. The actions of Murdock Trust therefore have no real bear- ing on the operations of either Endeavour or New Seasons.” For its part, New Seasons Workers United says its ready and willing to meet with the new co-presidents, and issued a state- ment attributed to Grant Park UNIONIZATION ] JAN-FEB 2018 The following are Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces where workers have decided whether to be represented by a union. The thumbs-up symbol means workers will be union-represented. Thumbs-down means they’ll be on their own. The information comes from the National Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board. Raymond Thomas James Coon Union election results Employer (Location) Union Pizza Blends (Portland) Bakers Local 114 Yes-No 8-23 % ■ 39 production, maintenance, laboratory and rice mill employees Eugene Urgent Care (Eugene) SEIU Local 49 63-77 % Cynthia Newton Chris Frost ■ 165 CNAs, LPNs, and support staff at 13 Eugene-area clinics owned by ICCO, Inc. Veteran Care Centers of Oregon (The Dalles) United Steelworkers 3-2 ^ ■ 13 registered nurse charge nurses and non-professional employees Oregon Symphony (Portland) American Fed. of Musicians Local 99 3-0 ^ ■ 3 music librarians Unionization by majority signup Melissa Haggerty Sydney Montanaro Employer (Location) Union Silverton Fire District (Silverton) International Assn. of Fire Fighters Local 1159 ■ 3 employees - fire prevention and recruiting lieutenants and fire fighter mechanic If you get hurt at work but don’t want to file a claim, at least give the employer notice that you hurt yourself at work. This will protect your rights later should you need to file a claim. North Lincoln Fire and Rescue (Lincoln City) International Assn. of Fire Fighters ■ 14 employees - Firefighters and officers, deputy fire marshal, maintenance tech 820 SW Second Ave., Suite 200, Portland, OR 97204 Jefferson County (Madras) Federation of Oregon Parole & Probation Officers ■ 5 parole and probation officers Scott Sell Chris Thomas www.tcnf.legal New Seasons worker Jennifer Trost: “Since we publicly launch- ed our efforts to improve our jobs and working conditions at New Seasons we have asked to meet with senior leadership to discuss wages, transparency in manage- ment practices and the need to have a voice on the job. Meeting with the company is an important step to winning change at New Seasons. We are pleased they have responded to our request and we hope to schedule the meeting soon.”
