Living Wage a Direct Result of Unionization Attempt:

by CM4CP editorial hoodlums 2/18/05

If you’re a Coop member who remembered workers’ attempt to unionize last year you might be under the impression that it failed. Yet just one year after La Montañita used classic anti-union tactics to pressure employees into giving up a living wage is being implemented. In the January issue of the Coop Connection La Montañita claims to have begun research into such a wage one and a half years ago, just seven months before the scheduled NLRB (union certification) election. So at the same time as co-op employes were preparing to make real demands La Montañita was already planning on making things better?
In fact, things were quite different. Hours and staff were being
consistently cut, turnover was high and there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the corporate behavior of the new General Manager C.E. Pugh. When his salary was “leaked” (it did not become public until Coop members pressured him at a standing room only board meeting in the middle of the unionization attempt) workers and members were amazed. He was making almost $100,000 a year while entry level clerks were at $6.50 an hour!
La Montanita’s claim that changes in the wage structure were already in the works before the unionization attempt are false. At the time, the Vice-President of the Board, Marshall Kovitz, told an employee in January 2004 that even a 25 cent raise for the lowest paid workers would “put the co-op out of business within four years." So either Mr. Kovitz was wrong or misled about the financial situation of the Coop. Presumably the new "living wage" which management is being so nice to give the workers won't put the Co-op into bankruptcy.

The new "living wage" isn't a gift from management. It is a response to the attempt to unionize last year. It is a bribe so that workers don't try to organize again. When the union busting antics of managemnt were exposed to the community the Coop lost many members and was shamefully embarrassed.

What the new "living wage" scale shows is that La Montañita could afford to pay workers more and wasn’t willing to meet halfway at all. If we want La Montañita to live up to it's proclaimed principles we’re going to have stop being passive bystanders and make it happen. Wages are just the beginning; workers organize unions for many reasons, and most of them have to do with respect and a desire to have a say at work.

*see the January 2005 Co-op Connection at www.lamontanita.com to
verify Pugh’s wage as being "6 times the living wage."