Kelsey Naylor has been waiting for an apology for a long time.
It’s been nearly a year since she was fired from the Citizen’s Co-op along with four other members — the catalyst to a legal battle that made its way to the National Labor Relations Board. Four of the members, represented by the Gainesville Industrial Workers of the World, reached a settlement with the co-op in early February, and with it came a public apology.
“We at Citizens Co-op have made mistakes in the past, but have recently been working to rectify them,” read a post on the co-op’s Facebook page on Feb. 24. “We are officially and publicly apologizing for terminating the unionized workers: Kelsey Naylor, Ryan O’Malley, Sylvia Arnold, and Teresa Burlingame.”
Naylor regards the settlement, which offered her and the other employees reinstatement and $10,000 of back pay, with cautious optimism.
“Personally I’m glad that some kind of settlement was reached,” she said. “I don’t think it totally makes up for what happened, but it definitely is a step in the right direction.”
Part of the payment will be made via installments while the rest will be in the form of store credit. Naylor said none of the employees, including herself, plan to take their jobs back.
The co-op also apologized for the initial firing of two long-standing employees, Julie Matheney and Kathy Whipple, according to the Facebook post.
According to the Co-op, Naylor and four other workers were fired for using the organization’s email database to send out a message about unionizing. The dismissed workers then filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board claiming the Co-op fired them for wanting to unionize. The board consequently determined that there was reasonable cause to believe that the workers were fired for trying to form a union, said David Cohen, NLRB regional attorney.
Naylor and Thomas Hawkins, the chairman for the co-op, said the discussion that led to the settlement was amicable.
“It has been a distraction from focusing on what we do best,” Hawkins said.
Naylor said she would not discourage people from returning to shop at the co-op, but she wouldn’t actively encourage them just yet. However, she said she is hopeful that the new management team will run the store as a cooperative rather than a corporation.
“With that many great people involved, I’m hoping it’ll reach that,” Naylor said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 3/8/2015 under the headline “Citizen’s Co-op offers apology, back pay to dismissed workers”]
CORRECTIONS:
An article published on 3/8/2015 under the headline “Citizen’s Co-op offers apology, back pay to dismissed workers” incorrectly stated that four members were fired. Five members were fired.
The same story stated that the members were fired for incorrectly using the Co-op’s email database to send out a message about unionizing. This was the reason given by the Co-op. The National Labor Relations Board determined that the employees were unjustly fired for trying to form a union.
Ex-employees and Gainesville residents protested outside Citizens Co-op, seen here in a file photo, Monday afternoon. The store is located at 435 S. Main St.
