Eastside Food Co-op workers submit cards for union election

[Omaha Steve]

March 31, 2017

MINNEAPOLIS
More than 70 percent of the employees at Eastside Food Co-op in Minneapolis signed and submitted cards to the National Labor Relations Board Thursday to unionize with United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 653. (link is external)

Eastside Food Co-op workers said they hope to follow workers at the Linden Hills Co-op who unionized with Local 653 last month. They aim to raise standards both at their co-op and the larger retail grocery industry.

“I support the union movement here at Eastside,” said James Mossak, who works in the grocery department. “Our goals are to continue to support a fair work environment, provide accountability and transparency, and to have a strong voice at the table in regards to policies that affect us Eastside employees.”

Co-ops are long standing champions of organic food, sustainable agriculture, the environment and fair trade which supports good working conditions and fair wages for producers. Workers at Eastside Food Co-op believe in those co-op values and are forming a union as an extension of those values in their own workplace.

FULL story: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/articles/eastside-food-co-op-workers-submit-cards-union-election?link_id=3&can_id=a9cf23302332fb8fa0573509116ae7fe&source=email-labor-update-103&email_referrer=labor-update-103&email_subject=labor-update