Loyal patrons of Santa Cruz Markets may have to shop elsewhere for Thanksgiving dinner. Market clerks and meat department workers have voted to strike.
Around 35 total employees work across both market locations — found in Old Town Goleta and Santa Barbara — 23 of which are members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770.
Union membership from both stores voted unanimously to authorize a strike in response to the owners’ alleged unfair labor practices, including “coercion, surveillance, unilateral changes, and bad faith negotiations,” the union said in a statement on Monday.
“We’ve had enough of their union-busting tactics that undermine workers and silence our voices,” it said. “And if they thought Santa Cruz Markets’ members could be scared away from standing up for our rights, they just found out that they are very wrong.”
Erik Mendez has worked for the small-town grocery chain for seven years, currently manning the butcher shop at the iconic Goleta location on Hollister Avenue.
He claimed that the Markets’ owners have tried to bribe him and other union members with cash or a check to leave the union and threatened to fire them if they did not accept. “They try to divide us, to intimidate us,” he explained. “It’s not fair.”
The stores’ owners, Santa Barbara Markets Corp., did not respond to requests for comment before publication deadline.
The decades-old grocery stores are staples in their respective neighborhoods — especially the historic Goleta market, where families can shop for chicharrónes and saddle up on the coin-operated kiddie rides outside. However, a year ago, former owner Tom Modugno sold both locations.
Modugno, who took over the markets from his father after his passing, was “the best,” Mendez said, in terms of taking care of his employees. But since the store has come under new management, six of Mendez’s co-workers have quit their jobs. That includes familiar face Arturo Del Campo, an employee of more than 40 years. “He couldn’t handle it,” Mendez said. “We don’t feel sure about going to work, about what’s going to happen the next day.”
“I love what I do,” he added. “But I have three kids, and I’m stressed. What am I gonna do?”
He said they have met with management five times already to discuss their contract and nothing has come of it. He and his coworkers are prepared to walk out, as a “last resort,” if they do not reach an agreement with fair wages, affordable health care, and protections of former benefits that were secured in their contract under Modugno’s ownership, the union stated.
“We deserve it — we work hard for this store and this community,” Mendez said.
The union stated that it will continue to try to bargain with Santa Cruz Markets in good faith — the next meeting is scheduled for this Thursday — but it is prepared to call the strike “in the days ahead of the busy Thanksgiving holiday” if ownership “continues to commit unfair labor practices.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.