GreenStar employees vote to unionize the co-op’s main store, with the Dewitt Mall location planning to follow suit

ITHACA, NY — More than 70 employees at GreenStar Food Co.’s flagship store on Cascadilla Street voted to form a union with Workers United in a National Labor Relations Board election Wednesday.

The employees voted 60 Fourteen of them were in favor of forming a union, or about 69 percent of all eligible voters, according to the management of GreenStar and Workers United, which also represents employees at Gimme! Coffee and the Science Center in Ithaca.

Now that the voting results are available, the union will soon be able to begin negotiations with management on a collective agreement.

“This is what democracy should be: letting people decide what they want, letting workers decide what they want for their jobs, and this is just the beginning of effective implementation,” said Alicia Richard, a help desk employee at GreenStar.

With the vote, GreenStar, a consumer cooperative with about 13,000 members, becomes the first grocery store in the Ithaca area to form a union in decades. It is also only the second cooperative grocery store in New York to form a union, after the Lexington Co-op in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize under Workers United in December 2022.

The vote to unionize at GreenStar’s main store came after workers at the smaller store in Dewitt Mall on Buffalo Street, which employs about 15 people, announced they would also seek unionization with Workers United.

Will Westlake, a Workers United organizer, said workers there want to join the bargaining unit formed at GreenStar’s headquarters, with an election scheduled for sometime in September.

When asked about the outcome of the union election, Jeff Bessmer, General Manager of GreenStar, said: “By forming a union, we all win.”

Bessmer, who has previously led several cooperatives with unionized workforces, said a union would help GreenStar “build and continue to grow a more worker-friendly culture.”

“I think every manager dreams of getting all of their employees in a room and asking them, ‘What’s most important to you?'” Bessmer says, pointing to a union as one way to accomplish that.

Bessmer said he had not been informed that workers at GreenStar’s Dewitt Mall announced their intention to unionize on Wednesday. He said he “respects the democratic process” of forming a union and looks forward to the outcome of any vote.

Workers at GreenStar have not highlighted wages as an issue at the co-op, where the starting wage is $17.63 an hour. Richard, the help desk worker, said wages are “further down the list,” but added, “I think we would all like to see higher wages.”

The main concern of the employees is the desire for improved communication and accountability between the management and the cooperative’s workforce.

James Elkins, a GreenStar employee for three years and currently working on the help desk, said he decided to switch to casual shifts because of what he saw as poor communication between staff and management. He said employee complaints are often ignored.

“I love the people I work with and I love the concept of cooperatives,” Elkins said. “And I just think that there’s been a lack of communication lately and there’s a feeling that voices aren’t being heard.”

He said that if the union initiative is successful, he would consider returning to part-time or full-time employment at GreenStar.

Will Corbin, an employee in GreenStar’s produce department, said he was tired of constantly complaining and not being heard.

Corbin, who works the late shift in the co-op’s produce department, said he has repeatedly expressed to management that there are not enough employees to handle the workload on the shift. He called the increase in staffing a “big request from my department” and said the current number of employees on the shift is burdened with “unfair expectations.”

Bessmer, the cooperative’s manager, said he looks forward to working with GreenStar’s union.

“If communication is a big issue, I’m happy to hear some suggestions on what better communication might look like. If other things come up, I’m just really happy that employees are well represented.”

In a statement, GreenStar Workers United said: “Now that the election is decided, we look forward to negotiating with management and working with them to find a path forward that will ensure the co-op remains an employer of choice and the best place to work and shop in the city.”