NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | September 17, 2021 | PAGE 3
Imperfect Foods busts union
From Page 1
company raised pay consider-
ably for new hires but not for
those already working there.
Schedules that could change
hour to hour was another big
complaint.
“‘Come in tomorrow at 5
a.m.’ ‘Come tomorrow at 10
a.m.’ The way they jerk around
our schedule is just ridiculous,”
one union supporter told the La-
bor Press.
Rispler was assigned to help
the workers unionize, and they
started collecting signatures on
union authorization cards. When
the pandemic hit, the effort fell
into disarray, but it relaunched in
April 2021. Once three fourths of
the workers had signed up, Local
162 asked the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) on
May 4 to schedule an election.
But U.S. labor law doesn’t let
workers choose who can or can’t
be in their union. Employers can
object, and the NLRB gets to de-
cide. Seeing that Teamsters Local
162 had support at the Clacka-
mas location, lawyers for Imper-
fect Foods argued that the bar-
gaining unit really should include
Springfield, Oregon, as well.
And Boise, Idaho. And SeaTac,
Tumwater, Mt. Vernon and
Spokane Valley, Washington.
The pro-union workers at
Clackamas who got involved
with the union had never met
those other workers before.
Local 162 was faced with a
choice: Team up with six other
Teamster locals to quickly launch
a three-state union campaign
from scratch, or fight it out in ad-
ministrative proceedings in front
of a federal administrative law
judge, delaying the union elec-
tion. Either way, the odds were
stacked in favor of the anti-union
company. Rispler and Local 162
opted to go for broke with a
three-state campaign, knowing
that delay can be fatal in a union
campaign because anti-union
employers will use their over-
whelming control of the work-
place to wage demoralizing daily
assaults on a fledgling union.
Soon, drivers were ordered to
attend mandatory anti-union
meetings in the workplace—on
the clock, and on top of drivers’
already long 10-hour shifts. The
meetings lasted one to two hours,
and took place every day for a
“I have deep admiration for
organized labor. The contri-
butions of labor unions to
the quality of life and earn-
ing power of millions of
workers are endless.”
—Imperfect CEO Philip Behn,
who then hired a union-buster
week, and then twice a week for
several more weeks.
Requiring employees to attend
anti-union meetings is actually il-
legal in Oregon under a 2009
law. But for the law to be used,
an employee would have to re-
fuse, be disciplined, and then file
suit.
Leading the meetings was a
professional union buster named
Jorge Sandoval. A union would
be a third party coming between
management and workers said
Sandoval, himself a third party
paid by the company. Sandoval
allegedly screamed in the face of
a worker who argued back.
Executives also took part in
the meetings, including chief op-
erations officer Neil Neufeld and
regional vice president of opera-
tions Joe Craig. At one of the
meetings, Neufeld pleaded for
compassion, according to a
driver who was there: If they
vote in the union, he told work-
ers, he’d be fired.
Some anti-union workers got
active and vocal. The company
sent them to the SeaTac distribu-
tion center to present their opin-
ions on paid time.
Besides the meetings there
were anti-union workplace fliers,
mailings, and text messages,
sometimes multiple times a day.
Imperfect Foods was frantic to
prevent a repeat of what hap-
pened in San Francisco. On April
15, a unit of 80 workers there
voted 28 to 23 to join United
Food & Commercial Workers
Local 5, despite the company hir-
ing a union-busting consultant
and holding daily 2-hour manda-
tory meetings for two straight
weeks. Imperfect Foods chal-
lenged that vote result, but its ob-
jections were dismissed by the
NLRB.
CEO Philip Behn—who
joined Imperfect Foods in 2019
after 10 years as an executive at
Walmart—professed “deep ad-
miration for organized labor” in
an April 21 post on the company
blog, and especially for Cesar
Chavez and Dolores Huerta,
“who [laid] the groundwork for
companies like Imperfect Foods
to build on.”
“[This] illustrates the point that
CEOs will do and say anything to
make sure that rank and file
workers don’t have a say in the
workplace,” Rispler said.
When ballots were counted
July 19, it was 42 for the union,
and 44 against.
“Unfortunately, their union
busting efforts were very effec-
tive,” Rispler said. “Their strategy
from the moment they brought
union busters in was to exhaust
the bargaining unit. It was daily
meetings, relentless texting. They
were just anti anti anti anti around
the clock.”
Despite the defeat, Rispler said
he’s staying in touch with com-
mittee leaders and could try again
in a year.
During its all-out anti-union
offensive, the company promised
to do better. Since the election
those promises have evaporated.
A promised $500 bonus became
$350. Evaluations were promised
in July, followed by raises in Au-
gust. That didn’t happen. And
workers were told they’d get a
“gift” in their account, a credit to-
ward their own food box pur-
chase. It ended up being (and no,
this isn’t a typo) $6.