In Berkeley, Union Members Try to Seize the Means of Production and Nearly Kill Off a Business

The SF Standard published a great story last weekend about a business started more than 40 years ago in Berkeley, CA. Urban Ore is a warehouse space for the sale of salvaged, donated items which was started with motto “To End the Age of Waste.” Here’s a recent post on their Instagram page.

Founder Daniel Knapp launched Urban Ore in 1980 with the green goal of keeping reusable items out of Berkeley’s landfill. His wife Mary Lou Van Deventer later became co-owner. Urban Ore had kept going over the decades and, unlike many businesses, it did pretty well during the pandemic. But it also brought in a new breed of young workers who were quickly dissatisfied with the working conditions. They decided to form a union.

Workers formed a union in 2023 through the Industrial Workers of the World, citing issues including understaffing, unequal treatment, and retaliation. One of the main complaints was around wages, which fluctuate because of a twice-monthly income share of store revenues.

The IWW is a famously anarcho-socialist, anti-capitalist union. The workers got some help from the local chapter of the DSA.

Workers at Urban Ore are organizing! Our very own Easy Bay EWOC has been lending a hand to these workers. An injury to one is an injury to all! Join us in celebrating their unionization effort on Sunday, February 5th at 12 pm in front of Urban Ore! 900 Murray St, Berkeley, CA. pic.twitter.com/JSWgRbo5JC

— East Bay DSA (@DSAEastBay) February 2, 2023

The decision to join this particular union was quickly followed by demands for control of the company’s budget, something the owners saw as a non-starter.

“They’re asking for financial control and to do the budgeting for the company. That’s an unreasonable ask,” Van Deventer said. “We’ve been running this company successfully for 44 years, and if that’s the ask, that’s not going to happen.”

And that led to a strike which lasted for 30 days. Workers would picket outside the entrance asking customers not to go in. As a result sales are down sharply and the owners are using savings to make payroll.

To hear it from Van Deventer and Knapp, a full concession to the union’s demands represents an existential threat to the business and the philosophy they’ve invested their life into. The couple says they’ve been using their retirement funds to make payroll and that their nest egg is already half depleted. The strike, which started on March 22, cut sales by as much as 90% on some days.

“We’ve put our life savings into this. Talk about skin in the game, we’ve been flayed,” Knapp said.

After two years of bad blood, capped by the strike, its starting to dawn on some of the employees that Urban Ore may not survive the union’s efforts.

Though he wasn’t scheduled to work over the weekend, Chris Amado was hanging out off-duty amid the sea of refuse, just like he had for nearly his entire adult life. Leaning on a pallet jack in front of a graveyard of old toilets, he seemed resigned to the fact that the place might not have long left. “There’s going to be a lot of people that are going to have a really hard time finding a job after this, right?” said Amado, a few tears sliding down from behind his Ray-Bans. “If it goes away, it’s not coming back.”

A union member who initially supported the strike has changed his mind about the union’s tactics. “They haven’t realized we’re all going into the same hole, and none of us will be able to get out when we want to,” he said.

The strike was called off and both sides are negotiating again, but one worker says he doesn’t think it will ever go back to being what it was. “You’ve played chicken with everybody’s livelihoods. Do you really think everyone is just going to go back to be co-workers and friends again?”