About 30 people demonstrated in front of Mother Kali’s Books on Tuesday night to protest recent termination letters issued to all four of its current employees.
The employees, who will all be terminated on or by Feb. 13, contend that the firing method could violate certain union rights, including the right to collective bargaining.
The employees rallied friends and volunteers to stomp and shout outside the store for their continued employment and for restored health care benefits during the first part of a Mother Kali’s executive board meeting.
“(Our goal) is to show the board that we have community support,” said store Co-Manager Cheryl RiversHailey, who received her termination letter on Jan. 23.
Less than 15 minutes into the meeting, board members adjourned to a different location after reviewing a copy of a claim and a requested injunction filed by the workers.
The board members declined to comment.
On Jan. 26, the employees filed an unfair labor practices claim with the National Labor Relations Board in Portland. As an independent federal agency established to enforce the National Labor Relations Act, the NLRB remains neutral in all labor disputes while ensuring the right to collective bargaining, which Mother Kali’s employees are fighting to maintain.
“Their case has been assigned for investigation,” Portand NLRB Officer-In-Charge Cathleen Calahan said. “But we won’t know what happened until we investigate it.”
Calahan defined collective bargaining as “a union and employer obligation to bargain, in good faith, with respect to terms and conditions of employment.” Calahan said she couldn’t tell whether the bookstore employees’ case involved a lack of collective bargaining and that the investigation should take anywhere from 30 to 45 days to complete.
In the meantime, the two staff employees, Tiffany Haggmark and Madrone Deicher, and their co-managers, all of whom are members of IWW Local 660, hope to receive a quick injunction to allow time for collective bargaining.
RiversHailey and Sandra Pasman became temporary co-managers at the store in September after working as staff employees for three years and a year and a half, respectively. Approximately three weeks ago, board members notified the co-managers of upcoming newspaper ads for a single full-time manager. Although she always knew her management position would be temporary, RiversHailey said she was shocked to receive the termination letter.
“They didn’t say it, but I was under the impression we were going to get our staff jobs back,” she said. “It was a total surprise for everyone.”
RiversHailey’s letter stated that the board needed “to implement a new management-staff model” in order to keep the store open. At the demonstration, the employees said the store has also recently denied them health care benefits, which they said “adds insult to injury.”
At the end of the demonstration, demonstrators with signs — one reading “Union busting is the patriarchy” — held them high while others shouted “Union bust, lose our trust” at the board members, who walked out the store’s back door to avoid the crowd.