Wedge keeps shareholders in the dark as workers near union vote

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/articles/wedge-keeps-shareholders-dark-workers-near-union-vote?can_id=a9cf23302332fb8fa0573509116ae7fe&source=email-labor-update-27&email_referrer=labor-update-27

By Michael Moore, Union Advocate
November 1, 2015

MINNEAPOLIS
Workers at the Wedge Co-Op in Minneapolis are poised to vote in an organizing election next month. Co-Op Partners Warehouse workers reached a tentative agreement with the Wedge earlier this month.

But that might come as news to the co-op’s shareholders, who were left in the dark regarding the strides workers are taking toward a greater voice on the job during the co-op’s annual meeting Oct. 22, union representatives said.

“It’s a little disappointing,” UFCW Local 1189 (link is external)’s Abraham Wangnoo said. “A lot of the workers feel the shareholders hold a lot of power, but they’re being kept in the dark when it comes to the things going on with the workforce.”

Now workers are left wondering whether the Wedge might balk at the terms of a neutrality agreement reached during warehouse workers’ organizing drive with the United Food and Commercial Workers four-plus years ago. The agreement covers all of the Wedge’s buildings, and it prevents pro-union workers from picketing or calling for boycotts as long as the Wedge does not interfere in the organizing campaign.

FULL story at link.

[FLson]

1. Shareholders that aren't employees are best kept in the dark.

Shareholders are gamblers in small businesses. In large businesses they'll take longer and more conservative positions on things. In smaller businesses, they'll bail at the first hint of trouble or reduced ROI. If they can't bail with their money they'll bail with their support and create competitors which can drive the initial business into bankruptcy and thus be allowed to break most of their contracts (including agreements with unions).

The smarter move to me would have been to go to the shareholders with a plan to allow employees to buy in as shareholders as a way of improving their pay and benefits. Make employees a part of the business, not merely something in it.