Urban Ore Workers Get Back to the Line

On April 30, workers at local salvage yard and general store Urban Ore called off a six-week strike after winning major concessions from their bosses. Now, those same workers report that Urban Ore’s owners, Daniel Knapp and Mary Lou Van Deventer, have backtracked on core aspects of the agreement that ended the strike. Neither Knapp nor Van Deventer replied to a request for comment on their deviation from the original agreement.

In addition to winning key workplace rights, the Urban Ore Union secured an agreement that the store would rehire laid-off strikers once clear financial benchmarks were met. Workers report that management admits those benchmarks have been exceeded. But when the deadline for laid-off workers came and went on June 15th, the owners backtracked on the agreement, exacerbating long-standing issues with understaffing at the store, which began with a hiring freeze dating to last summer.

“Even before the strike, understaffing left us endlessly overworked and playing catch-up,” said Timmy Smith, an Urban Ore Union bargaining team member who has worked at Urban Ore for two years.

Instead of giving laid-off strikers their jobs back, Urban Ore ownership is offering those workers an indefinite 60% reduction in hours via an offer of a complex work-sharing arrangement. This part-time work share would only apply to workers who went out on strike this spring.

“With the hiring freeze, the company took my position away so they could toss me around from department to department to cover staffing shortages. Now, with this unjustified work reduction offer, they want to cut our income and increase our daily workload further."

“With the hiring freeze, the company took my position away so they could toss me around from department to department to cover staffing shortages. Now, with this unjustified work reduction offer, they want to cut our income and increase our daily workload further,” said Smith.

Urban Ore has not responded to the Union’s repeated requests for proof that they can’t afford to rehire the laid-off strikers. In a community petition to management, the Union points out that it strains credulity for Knapp and Van Deventer to claim that the only current workers they are unable to afford to pay are the same ones who went out on strike this spring. Knapp and Van Deventer did not respond to a request for comment about the lack of financial transparency either.

But the workers are battle-hardened from a six-week strike and willing to fight for management to honor their commitments. “This is not the first time we’ve seen the company use underhanded tactics to fight workplace organizing,” said Benno Giammarino, a four-year employee at Urban Ore. “The strike showed us how direct action can effectively thwart union busting — I saw firsthand that most people do not want to cross a picket line. We’re ready to grab our picket signs again if that’s what’s necessary to achieve fair staffing.”

The union is launching an informational picket on Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, distributing information about management’s renewed misbehavior at the bargaining table, unless their demands are met. They encourage community supporters to join them.