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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.”