{"id":19133,"date":"2021-06-18T10:34:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T17:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=19133"},"modified":"2021-06-18T10:35:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T17:35:00","slug":"dandelion-chocolate-workers-protest-layoffs-during-union-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/06\/18\/dandelion-chocolate-workers-protest-layoffs-during-union-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Dandelion Chocolate workers protest layoffs during union battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
A rally outside of the company supported the workers.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As NLRB counts votes, nine union backers lose their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By GARRETT LEAHY<\/a> JUNE 16, 2021 (48hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Kenneth Cabrera was fired from Dandelion Chocolate on June 2, he was taken completely by surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t prepared for it,\u201d said Cabrera. \u201cI felt like my name was dragged through the mud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabrera, who worked as a barista at the Valencia storefront for nearly two years, openly supported Dandelion workers\u2019 campaign to unionize, and said that Dandelion Chocolate management has opposed unionization since workers went public with the effort in March. Cabrera and eight other workers laid off the following day were outspoken union supporters and members of the Dandelion bargaining committee. Cabrera said he believes that the fact that these nine layoffs of workers from the bargaining committee was an act of retaliation by the company against those openly supporting unionization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are things that management would say about us, our movement, or specific individuals about the union,\u201dsaid Cabrera. \u201cIn my case, the manager was vocal about his gripe with the union, he literally said that he was \u201cpissed off\u201d that they were unionizing,\u201d said Cabrera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to these layoffs, more than 50 Dandelion employees, union leaders, elected officials, and union supporters gathered outside Dandelion Chocolate\u2019s storefront on 740 Valencia Street on Sunday to decry the layoffs and demand that the nine dismissed workers be re-hired immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a lot of talk in City Hall about economic recovery\u2026let\u2019s not measure economic recovery by whether the stock market goes up\u2026let\u2019s measure economic recovery by how many workers unionize, by what happens to workers wages,\u201d said District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The layoffs came amid a contested union election held by the NLRB on April 20,<\/a> from which four votes are currently being litigated by the ILWU Local 6, the union that hopes to represent Dandelion\u2019s workers, and Dandelion Chocolate management, with a decision projected to arrive in six to eight weeks. The outcome of that review will likely determine whether workers unionize or not, according to Agustin Ramirez, Northern California lead organizer for ILWU Local 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt could come down to one or two votes,\u201d said Ramirez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These layoffs, Ramirez said, come after thinly veiled termination threats, presented frequently during \u201call hands\u201d weekly company meetings going back as far as March, around the time when Dandelion workers went public with their plans to unionize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ramirez and Cabrera, Dandelion Chocolate founder and chief executive Todd Masonis has said that unionization would deter investors, damaging the business\u2019 finances and forcing layoffs to remain solvent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen he laid them off, we felt that it was targeted. There\u2019s no way that these nine workers were just people who had to be laid off. None of the nine layoffs were anyone who was not a union supporter,\u201d said Ramirez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dandelion Chocolate founder and chief executive Todd Masonis said that protesters\u2019 outrage regarding the nine layoffs misrepresents what really happened, saying that there were a total of 16 layoffs, and the fact that nine of them were union supporters on the bargaining committee was a coincidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masonis also said that the 16 layoffs included managers and non-managers alike, and that layoffs were made based on where profits were low, and then, by seniority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know who is on the union organizing committee, so I can\u2019t speak to that except to say that these actions affected managers and non-managers, both union supporters and non-union supporters. We reduced departments solely by profitability \u2014 and within those teams \u2014 by seniority,\u201d said Masonis in an email interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramirez, however, said he is not convinced, and argued that the layoffs are intended to weaken the pro-union presence inside the bargaining unit, which is composed of 39 workers, but leaves the number of workers who do not support unionizing intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOut of the bargaining unit, out of those 39, nine were let go, and all nine were union supporters. If he let six or seven others go, they were probably managers or other people who can\u2019t vote anyway\u2026I believe at the end of the day, the union would win the election by one or two votes, so if you let nine votes out of the 21 that were possibly going to be \u201cyes\u201d votes on the bargaining committee, and you leave the 19 or 20 that did not vote for the union in the election intact, where\u2019s the majority now? The \u201cno\u201d votes are intact, and the union supporters are cut in half,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masonis did not identify which 16 positions were dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masonis also said that Cabrera\u2019s termination was done for reasons separate from the other layoffs, but did not elaborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabrera said he disagrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe situation itself, the context, that so many workers were laid off suddenly, I think my termination was part of the management\u2019s reaction to chill the union movement,\u201d said Cabrera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masonis said that the layoffs had to happen, with the alternative to layoffs being to go out of business, and that 40 percent of the company has experienced reductions in pay, hours, and layoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Union supporters, however, expressed skepticism at Masonis\u2019 proclaimed fears of financial ruin if workers unionize, pointing to the hiring of law firm Littler Mendelson P.C.<\/a>\u2013which is notorious for its hardball legal tactics against unions. That firm doesn\u2019t come cheap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demonstrators promised to keep pressuring Dandelion Chocolate to rehire the nine dismissed workers, saying they will continue raising their voices until that demand is met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be back,\u201d chanted protesters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As NLRB counts votes, nine union backers lose their jobs. By GARRETT LEAHY JUNE 16, 2021 (48hills.org) When Kenneth Cabrera was fired from Dandelion Chocolate on June 2, he was taken completely by surprise. \u201cI wasn\u2019t prepared for it,\u201d said Cabrera. \u201cI felt like my name was dragged through the… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19133"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19135,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19133\/revisions\/19135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}