Last Updated on May 22, 2024, 7:56 AM | Published: May 22, 2024
NORMAN, Okla – The parent company that owns Natural Grocers, Vitamin Cottage Natural Food Markets, Inc., hired a “labor relations” firm to deal with the labor organizing in the Norman location of Natural Grocers leading to a union victory for the workers.
Workers at Natural Grocers in Norman have been organizing and working towards union representation since at least 2021. Recently, things have heated up with pickets and retaliation against union organizers.
When it came time to vote, the workers won their election and the right to bargain as a union.
But, they won in the face of intense pressure from company-hired consultants who specialize in foiling unions forming in a workforce.
Free Press has obtained a letter from Michael Penn of The Crossroads Group to the Vice President of Vitamin Cottage Natural Food Markets, Inc., Jonathan Dhillon, found on the Department of Labor’s website.
The letter, dated February 8th, 2024, starts by acknowledging that the union-busting group has agreed to operate in stores in three Oklahoma cities:
- Oklahoma City.
- Norman.
- Tulsa.
“In accordance with our conversations and mutual agreements, this letter will confirm that Vitamin Cottage Natural Food Markets Inc., dba ‘Natural Grocers’ (the ‘Client’) has retained The Crossroads Group Labor Relations Consultants (the ‘Consultant’) regarding general personnel and labor relations activities at its stores in the areas of Oklahoma City, Norman, and Tulsa, Oklahoma commencing on or about February 11th, 2024.”, the letter began.
The letter also delves into the premium prices Natural Grocers is willing to pay for Crossroads Group’s union-busting tactics. The grocery store is willing to pay hundreds of dollars an hour for each visit to a Natural Grocers store.
Big money for anti-union efforts
The letter states, “Our fees will be charged on an hourly basis in minimum units of a quarter of an hour at the discounted rate of $450.00 per hour. Client is billed at the hourly rate for all time expended on their behalf, including all windshield time between Client’s various stores, plus reasonable and customary expenses.”
The letter outlines all the expenses Natural Grocers pays.
“Expenses include, but are not limited to airline travel, lodging, meals, car rental, and all out-of-pocket expenses.”, the letter explained.
Free Press spoke to one worker who is familiar with The Crossroads Group’s operations at the Norman store. To protect their employment, they’ve been granted anonymity.
Mandatory meetings
The worker describes a set of four “slideshow” meetings. The first two were largely anti-union, but the closer the employees of Natural Grocers’ got to filing for a union election, the Group switched gears and started teaching about the process of a union election for the last two “slideshow” meetings.
“I got called into four different meetings. The first two meetings were more like anti-union-type stuff. It was about them trying to persuade us to say ‘no’ without them actually saying that, of course,” they explained.
“By the second two meetings that I had, at that point they could tell there was going to be a union election. I think at that point they felt threatened, and they didn’t really know what else to say to anyone, so it kind of shifted into ‘this is how the election is going to work’, this is what the ballots look like’, ‘we’re going to cover the cameras’…at that point it was just them telling us how it was going to go.” they concluded.
Another worker who also spoke to Free Press with anonymity to protect their employment has had more of an aggressive experience with The Crossroads Group.
“So basically the meetings we originally had were with Miko Penn from the Crossroads Group, and she gave us the typical spiel about how joining a union is hopeless. I think the crazy thing about it is how close they skirt the lines of legality,” they said.
For example, they said the company can’t say “The store will close if the union happens”, but they can say “They PREDICT the store will close if the union happens”.
Another tactic Crossroads Group has used is finding anti-union articles about the UFCW, the union representing Natural Grocers, and painting the UFCW as racist, saying they paid people of color less.
The aggression this worker saw was with another unnamed Crossroads consultant. The consultant would make a negative claim about unions, and the worker would challenge them.
“The second labor consultant had a different tactic. She was very aggressive towards me. I think they wanted to target me in these meetings. I would question her sources on anything,” they said.
When the worker questioned her on her sources, she would accuse them of trying to “run a campaign” in the meetings. The consultant also told the worker that other workers were “glad they weren’t in the same meeting with you”.
According to this worker, the consultant would paint them as a bad person just for questioning certain claims the Crossroads Group would make in these meetings.
That’s not the only issue with these meetings. The other issue is location. There is a “big, spacious conference room” at the Natural Grocers store in Norman, but the workers say the meetings were being held in a cramped storage closet.
“These meetings started happening, when they announced the election, everyday. They have an entire conference room – very spacious, has AC – but they chose to have these meetings in a storage closet,” they said. The storage closet was very “cramped” and “uncomfortable”, and they feel like there was some sort of “psychological component” to it, and the workers were being intimidated.
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Alex Gatley
Alex Gatley covers labor activities in the state of Oklahoma.
