ITHACA, N.Y. — Workers at GreenStar Food Co+op’s Collegetown and Dewitt Mall locations voted on Monday to unionize with Workers United.
Of the 26 eligible voters, 12 votes were cast in favor and zero votes against unionizing in a National Labor Relations Board election. Now workers at all three of GreenStar’s locations will be represented in the same bargaining unit initially formed by the successful unionization vote at the co-op’s flagship store on Aug. 8.
Workers can soon begin to bargain with co-op’s management for their first labor contract.
Caleb Harned and Benjamin Harned, two brothers who work at GreenStar’s Dewitt Mall location at 215 N Cayuga St, helped organize the unionization effort at the Dewitt and CollegeTown stores.
Workers at GreenStars flagship store at 770 Cascadilla St. emphasized a desire to improve communication with the co-op’s management as a main motivation for unionizing. Caleb and Benjamin said workers at the co-op’s two smaller stores did not share the same complaints about communication as workers at the flagship store.
While workers at the satellite stores say they’re content with management, the Harned brothers said they and their co-workers were convinced to unionize in case their working conditions change.
“We’re happy now, look five years into the future. Our current manager is wonderful. We love him,” Benjamin said. “But what if we don’t have [him] anymore? What if we have someone else? What if situations change?”
Some of the goals that Caleb and Benjamin stated they wanted to achieve with a first labor contract were more regular wage increases for workers, as well as a “just cause” provision, which would outline clear reasons for disciplinary actions and firings for employees.
Caleb said the effort to unionize GreenStar’s two remaining stores didn’t receive “any negative pushback” from management. He called the unity around the unionizing effort, and management keeping a respectful distance, a “morale booster” for GreenStar
Just before Caleb said that, a worker at GreenStar walked by and said, “Hell yeah!” when asked what they thought of the successful unionization effort.
“It’s already a morale booster,” Caleb said. “We just saw another worker come by who doesn’t even work at Dewitt or College Town go, ‘Hell yeah!’ at the approval of this. And that’s like a good thing. That is nice. That’s good feedback.”
The successful unionization effort at GreenStar is a far cry from the organizing effort at the co-op in 2019. At that time, pro-union workers accused the co-op of anti-union activity and unfair labor practices.
It was an episode some workers have described as traumatic, and misaligned with the Democratic values the co-op espoused.
GreenStar is a consumer-owned co-op with around 13,000 member-owners. The co-op is governed by an elected council, and member-owners also vote on some major decisions for the co-op.
GreenStar General Manager Jeff Bessmer, who was hired in 2022, said in an interview that the co-op’s council, staff, and member-owners have all described the conflict between management and the previous unionization effort as a terrible episode in GreenStar’s history.
“Everyone is like this was maybe the most horrible moment in GreenStar’s history,” Bessmer said. “Maybe with the exception of when our building was burnt down.”
(In 1992, GreenStar’s store on the corner of Cayuga and Farm street completely burnt down.)
Bessmer, who has experience working with unions in previous management roles, said he believed that GreenStar can show that co-ops and unions can work well together.
He touted that GreenStar was recently ranked in the top 25% of co-ops nationwide for its financial performance, according to CoMetrics, a technology company that serves co-ops and other independent businesses with performance data.
“You can have it all. You can have good jobs, great farmer support, reasonable prices, community sustainability — all this great stuff — and financial success,” Bessmer said.
A first labor contract can often take months, even well over a year to negotiate. Neither GreenStar management nor union leadership provided a timeline they thought a first labor contract would be negotiated along, but both parties said they hoped it would be resolved quickly.
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