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General Meeting Report OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE PARK SLOPE FOOD COOP Established 1973 Volume MM, Number 5 March 15, 2018 Florida Farmworkers March for Worker Rights in NYC By Hayley Gorenberg U.S. agricultural workers— armworkers who pick Flor- most of them from Mexico, Fida tomatoes, a key ingre- Haiti, and a smattering of dient in fast food menus, will Central American countries— converge on the New York City came together in 1993 when headquarters of the board six workers joined to fight for chair of Wendy’s restaurants worker rights and to confront for five days of protest. They farmworker maltreatment, PHOTO BY KEVIN RYAN have also planned a public including violence; abuse of Supporters of Reginald Ferguson testify in his support for due process. fast and a march for worker women by fellow farmworkers, rights scheduled to reach the crew leaders, and managers; United Nations’ Dag Ham- and sub-poverty wages and marskjold Plaza on March 15. wage theft. The coalition char- General Meeting Report The Coalition of Immoka- acterizes the most extreme By Taigi Smith age 80 people on staff at any given time,” said lee Workers, a human-rights cases as modern-day slavery. he PSFC February 2018 General Meeting General Coordinator Joe Szladek. “The turn- organization representing CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 Twas held on Tuesday, February 27, at St. over rate for typical grocery stores and Coops Francis Xavier Catholic Academy. No items on average is much higher, hovering around were presented at the Open Forum, some- 60%, added Szladek. The pay here is really fair, times the liveliest part of the GM, and the great time off, excellent benefits,” who added meeting quickly moved to the presentation of that staff are voicing their job satisfaction by coordinator and committee reports. “sticking around.” General Coordinator Joe Holtz stated that Technology is also changing at the PSFC. no financial report was available this month, We are phasing out the clipboards and mov- as the PSFC’s fiscal year had only started on ing toward UPC bar code scanners. Eventually, January 29. Holtz spoke briefly about mem- members will be trained to use the UPC scan- bership growth and invited the membership ners. With more members using the scanners, to review a supplementary report titled “Mem- PSFC staff members will have more time to do bership Growth.” (Copies are available in the other things around the Coop. office on the second floor.) The chart looked at the various measures the Coop had taken to Second Location Study Report increase membership size despite the physical Margaret Stix of the Second Location Study limitations of the Coop. “The more member- Committee talked about her committee’s ship that we have, the more money gets spent desire to see our Coop expand. “It’s not a big at the Coop. We created more capacity when surprise to folks that the Coop is pretty much we started taking debit cards,” said Holtz. at capacity, especially on weekends,” said ILLUSTRATION BY TOM KANE “This chart shows that we lost 14.1 percent Stix, who added that the physical size of the of members this year, but new joins are 13.7 Coop precludes us from fulfilling its mission Next General Meeting on March 27 percent, which amounts to one of the lowest or branching out to serve other communities. The General Meeting of the Park Slope Food Coop is held membership drops ever—basically we are “The Coop has been researching demograph- on the last Tuesday of each month. The March General holding steady. ics and trend lines, and trying to be proactive Meeting will be on Tuesday, March 27, at 7:00 p.m. at St. When compared to other food coops, staff in its analysis for a second location.” Stix also Francis Xavier School, 763 President St., between Sixth turnover at the PSFC is quite low. In 2017, just reported that her committee is hoping to have and Seventh Aves. five people left Coop employment, eight left in a final summary of research by the fall. The The agenda is in this Gazette, on www.foodcoop.com and 2016, and five in 2015. This number does not Second Location Study Committee wants to available as a flier in the entryway of the Coop. For more include retirees. “Our turnover rate is about hear from Coop membership and is urging information about the GM and about Coop governance, 8% when you consider that we have on aver- CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 please see the center of this issue. Thu, Apr 5 • Food Class: IN THIS ISSUE Authentic Indian Home Cooking 7:30 p.m. Puzzle 2 Fri, Apr 13 • Wordsprouts: Labor Committee Report 4 Coop National Poetry Month 7:00 p.m. Witnesses to Cuba’s Revolution in Organic Farming 5 Welcome, Coop Calendar 7 Event Sat, Apr 21 • Food Drive to Benefit CHiPS Soup Kitchen Mission Statement, Governance Information 7 Calendar of Events 8 & Sun, Apr 22 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Highlights Letters to the Editor 10 Exciting Workslot Opportunities, Classifieds 11 Look for additional information about these and other events in this issue. Candidates for Board of Directors 12 Community Calendar 12 Read the Gazette while you’re standing on line OR online at www.foodcoop.com 2 March 15, 2018 Park Slope Food Coop, Brooklyn, NY GM cedure of workslot adjust- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ments [changing a member’s workslot] under the Dis- people to take a 15-minute pute Resolution Committee survey on the Coop web- (DRC) from a non-hearing site. “We’re also doing focus action to one that warrants groups, which are incredi- a hearing.” The goal of the bly useful,” and she encour- proposal, said Ferguson, is aged members to sign up for to “establish fair and trans- future focus groups. Focus parent guidelines for the groups last about two hours committee’s judgments.” and count toward workslot Ferguson presented his credit. Members can sign up proposal because of his per- for focus groups online after sonal experience, saying completing the survey. he was “unceremoniously Bart DeCoursy from the stripped” of his position as International Trade Educa- a squad leader without, as tion Squad (ITES) discussed he put it, having the right to NAFTA and the renegotiation defend himself against his PHOTOS BY KEVIN RYAN of NAFTA. He talked about accusers. A group of 19 of the Mexican labor market Ferguson’s squad members and said the current admin- and other supporters stood istration is dragging its feet beside him as he described on renegotiating the current his demotion via voicemail NAFTA deal. from a member of the dis- ciplinary committee named Second Location Committee Curtis. Ferguson said he was told he was demoted because urges members to take a he played music too loudly 15-minute survey on Coop during his shift. He said he Website. was also accused of make-up Clockwise from top: sheet mismanagement. Fer- Reginald Ferguson guson had held the position addresses the General Vote on Due Process for 20 years. Meeting; Joe Holtz After the various commit- Ferguson called for greater discusses Coop attrition tees gave their status reports, transparency as it relates to and expansion; The “Ayes” the two agenda items were the DRC and listed all of the have it. presented and discussed. ways he felt he was denied The first, presented by Reg- due process. Ferguson said law judge, wanted to know didn’t leave his last name Advisory Committee, sub- inald Ferguson and a group he was fired without being more about the process that on the voicemail because he mitted on behalf of the PSFC of 19 supporters, submitted given an opportunity to con- took place before the dis- didn’t want people harassing staff by Ross Gibson and Sil- a proposal to provide greater test the action, and when his pute resolution committee him at home. However, Cur- via Ennes-Cabrera. “We are due process for all members squad members protested, fired Ferguson. tis did leave his telephone asking the Coop to create a under investigation by the they were told they “had no Members of the Dispute number with Ferguson and Coop Pension Advisory Com- disciplinary committee. Spe- standing,” as it pertained to Resolution Committee then says he received a slew of mittee. The PAC will over- cifically, Ferguson and his the firing. addressed the membership. messages from people sup- see the overall performance supporters sought to “change Margaret Stix, a lawyer “I will try to give you an porting Ferguson. of the pension plan and act the current disciplinary pro- and former administrative idea of who we are and how as a conduit between the we function,” said Grace Pro- “Ferguson called for greater plan administrators and the tos, a member of the com- membership. The PAC would mittee. “We are an impartial transparency.” consist of five members Sudoku group of members. Our job who have a background in is to protect the Coop, to A vote was taken on Fer- finance, and two staff mem- Sudoku is a puzzle. You are presented with a 9x9 grid of protect all of us. We look for guson’s proposal that mem- bers. The members would be squares, and that grid is divided into 3x3 zones. ways to perform peaceful res- bers who received a workslot nominated by an inaugural You solve the puzzle by filling the empty squares with olutions. We’re the commit- adjustment—essentially an selection group consisting single-digit numbers so that every zone, column and row tee that gets the complaint involuntary demotion—from of different members with a Gazette Sudokuses ueach of the numbers fromby Abdul1 to 9.
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