A letter sent to Portland employees of New Seasons market was leaked online and outlines the differences between the corporate view of the company, as well as potential union beliefs, demands and problems.

Unionization is a hot topic in the USA with polarizing debates taking place around the usefulness or obstructiveness of workers unions in general. Most people cannot find a middle ground on this topic and are either on one side of the fence or the other.

It should be noted that within Portland – each store will vote on whether it is unionizing independently. This is not a state, or citywide vote. Meaning if you were an employee in one store and then relocated to another store 15 miles away, you could be unionized or un-unionized depending on which way the vote went in each particular store.

Earlier in the month, New Seasons was ranked as a “B” tier grocery store by Portland residents. Whilst there is no denying that the food is the highest quality, many consumers think that it is simply not worth the money compared to rival stores. One comparison made was that a pre-made orzo salad costs $8.99 at New Seasons, where as Trader Joe’s sells a similar salad for $2.99

New Seasons is currently owned by a South Korean private equity firm, which is why many have speculated that these corporate vs union battles are now taking place.

Some argue that the main reason for opposing a union is NOT due to the rise in workers wages. Instead, many company bosses are frustrated with the inability to fire underperforming staff, as well as promote based on meritocracy.

On the other hand, workers want security when the CEO of a company changes. Often when a company underperforms a new CEO will come in and make some big shake ups, which can disrupt the lives of employees. With a union, they are much more protected from large scale overnight changes to their jobs.

Perhaps the most compelling arguments for anti-unionization are found on the back page of the pamphlet. Of course, these figures are possibly cherry-picked, but they are still real life comparisons made to other employers.

• The hourly wage for a starting New Seasons staff member is $16.25 per hour, with an average wage of a store employee being $20.35 per hour. Burgerville and Fred Meyer show starting salaries of $15 and $15.25 respectively.
• New Seasons has no required dues (deductions), where as the other two stores show monthly deductions of $22 and $37.
• The paid time off is also considerably better for New Seasons employees, which increases through each year or employment.
• New Seasons also has the best paid parental leave policies.

It’s not clear whether these comparison stores were chosen because they have low metrics for these comparisons. It would be interesting to know the salary and benefits of both Whole Foods and CostCo employees. However, this data is not publicly available.