Lawbreaking Liars

Another picture of the picketers in Joe’s parking lot. How long have the picketers been harassing us? Almost 7 months. The perverse thing about this snapshot is all these guys in this photo with orange leaflets are hourly workers, bought and paid for by the UFCW, but not belonging to the UFCW. It’s the latest in dirty tricks. It’s called “Outsourcing the Picket Line.”

And so it goes. Yesterday, I had a lady stop and ask me why the Tams weren’t allowing the employees to vote. I’m not even shocked any more when customers ask questions like these because I know where these misconceptions originate. I told the shopper the Tams had petitioned for an NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) secret ballot election for their employees but because UFCW local 5 has never asked to be recognized, the case was dismissed. She was stunned. I asked her who told her the lies, and she pointed at the folks in this photo with the orange boycott leaflets. Then I handed her this. Farmer Joe’s filed a petition for a secret ballot election so the employees could vote on whether they wanted a union or not, but according to the NLRB, “Although Local 5’s actions appear to be part of its attempt to organize the Employer’s employees, there is no evidence that it has ever demanded that the Employer recognize it as the majority representative of its employees.” The petition was dismissed.

“What are they still doing here then?” the customer asked.

I selected this info for her to read.

She read awhile. “I don’t get it,” she said.

“Get what?” I asked.

“How can they do this? Isn’t it illegal?”

I nodded. “You don’t know the half of it.”