BRATTLEBORO — A date has been set for employees of the Brattleboro Food Co-op to vote on unionization.
Late last week, the Co-op's Union Organizing Committee and general manager Alex Gyori reached an agreement to hold the election on Wednesday, Nov. 14.
That was the date that the workers and the union that seeks to represent them, Local 1459 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, had sought for a vote that would be supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In an NLRB-supervised election, the process gives an employer up to six weeks from the date of filing a request for representation by a union to hold an election. The UFCW filed its request on Oct. 9.
“It appears there had been some initial confusion on the part of the Co-op as to the election date having to be at the end of the 42-day period that is generated at the date of filing with the NLRB, rather than that the date can be any time within that six-week period,” according to a statement issued by Local 1459 on Monday. “The end of that period would have fallen during Thanksgiving week, which would have been an inconvenience to the store, and might have had an adverse affect on the number of employees who would have been available to vote.”
Also, a planned hearing to determine which employees would be eligible to participate in the election was canceled. The hearing, which was to have been held at the NLRB's Boston office, had been first scheduled on Oct. 16, then rescheduled to Oct. 22 at the request of the Co-op's legal firm, Downs Rachlin Martin (DRM).
According to Local 1459 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Brown, a hearing date is also automatically generated at the time of filing, but in most situations, the hearing is deemed unnecessary.
In a letter to supporters sent over the weekend, the Organizing Committee credited pressure from shareholders with achieving both of these decisions.
“It is very possible that the Co-op relented as a result of the flyer we handed out this past Tuesday, and which many of you submitted to management, demanding 'financial transparency' regarding the use of DRM,” the letter read. “Management, and the Board, might well have felt that they did not want any trouble or embarrassment at the Annual Meeting, especially as it comes the week before the long-awaited Grand Opening of the new store.”
The Co-op holds its annual shareholder meeting on Sunday, Nov. 4, at 4 p.m., at the West Village Meeting House in West Brattleboro.