Investigation progressing in Woodman's union dispute
JANESVILLE — Charges and countercharges of unfair labor practices have kept a local union dispute simmering, but the National Labor Relations Board has made headway in trying to determine whether Woodman’s employees can determine the fate of their union.
Earlier this year, more than one-third of the 950 employees at Woodman’s stores in Janesville, Beloit and Madison signed a petition to decertify United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 1473.
A few weeks later, more than 500 Woodman’s employees signed a second petition that called for Woodman’s to immediately pull its recognition of Local 1473 as the employees’ bargaining unit.
The case has generated weeks of testimony, thousands of pages of transcripts and hundreds of exhibits. It now rests with the NLRB, which eventually will decide whether an election should be held on the union’s future.
The NLRB is still investigating the allegations from both sides, which number in the hundreds.
In arguments to the NLRB, Local 1473 said that several people who signed the first petition were supervisors and therefore not eligible to vote in a decertification election.
Irv Gottschalk, regional director of the NLRB in Milwaukee, said the NLRB ruled in July that most of the employees Local 1473 identified as supervisors were not supervisors and therefore are eligible to vote in an election.
“We’re still investigating the charges of unfair labor practices coming from both sides,” Gottschalk said, hesitating to estimate the timetable for the dispute’s resolution. “Eventually, we will rule on the merit of all or part of the allegations.
“This is a big volume case.”
Union supporters have said the grocery chain’s management is behind the effort to bust up Local 1473’s representation of Woodman’s workers.
Opponents, however, have said the union is ineffective and is more interested in its self-preservation.
Woodman’s has 12 stores in Wisconsin and Illinois, half of which are represented by unions.
Aug 30, 2008 at 2:22 a.m.
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As a private company Woodman's is under no mandate by any agency to disclose who owns its stock. They meet the formal definition of employee-owned. So, good luck with your quest for information, but I don't think this is one that anyone outside the corporate offices can answer.
Aug 29, 2008 at 4:32 p.m.
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Thanks for the link, Janesvillean. It looks like I took too much time editing my response to Bigmike. 50% is a significant percentage of stock, but unless the ESOP prohibits counting stock owned by family members who are also on the payroll as employees, my point is still valid. A list of who owns the most stock will determine the truth in spirit of "employee-owned".
Aug 29, 2008 at 4:27 p.m.
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From a consumer standpoint, I don't care who owns Woodman's. I've never been employed at a unionized company, so I can't compare union vs non-union by experience. As an observer of the pro and anti-union rhetoric involving the decertification of the employee union, I think displaying how the stock is distributed would quickly shut up one side or the other.
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Phil Woodman advertises his business, both in his TV ads and on the company's skimpy web site, http://www.woodmans-food.com/ , as employee-owned. I don't know if there is a law requiring a legal minimum stock distribution to a minimum percentage of employees to allow him to make that claim. If someone knows of such a law, or a "Consumer Reports" type web site with information pertaining to the issue of determination of "employee-owned" status of companies, I would appreciate their posting information about them.
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The pro-union people claim "employee-owned" is a distortion of the truth, that the majority of stock, aside from a token percentage, is owned by Phil Woodman and immediate family.
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If Mr. Woodman is telling the truth, the percentages of stock ownership for the top 25 stockholders will be far lower than most people expect, and if the pro-union people are correct, adding up the percentage of stock held by the Woodman family circle and subtracting that from 100 will show how little checker/bagger/stocker ownership exists.
Aug 29, 2008 at 4 p.m.
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janesvillecomments, Woodman's is over 50% owned by the ESOP. It is included on this list of the largest employee-owned firms.
http://www.nceo.org/library/eo100.html
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That may not answer your question, but it does at least allow for majority employee ownership.
Aug 29, 2008 at 12:15 p.m.
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You already said you don't care that you shop by price, products offered, convenience and service so what do you care who owns the place?
Aug 29, 2008 at 12:06 p.m.
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I hope they rule in favor of having those annoying "We're employee-owned!" tv commercials taken off the air. Just sell the food - we don't ask if Logli or Sentry or Piggly Wiggly or Walmart or Basics is employee-owned. We shop by price, products offered, convenience and service (and yes, I do buy most of my groceries at Woodmans in Janesville)
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I would like to see Woodman's publish a list of stockholders and the percentage of stock held by each person. They don't have to do the entire list, just the top 25 stockholders, what percentage they own, and their relationship to the company. That would give us a good idea of how broadbased the employee-ownership of Woodman's is.
Aug 29, 2008 at 11:20 a.m.
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Time for this archaic union to move on out of town..
Aug 29, 2008 at 10:36 a.m.
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spank that union.....throw the rascals out!!!!!!!!!!
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