Since a meeting on Thursday, community members have circulated a petition asking the Co-Op Food Store to rehire two fired employees and to rethink their business policies.
At Thursday’s open meeting, about 100 community members unanimously voted to collect 1,800 signatures on a petition to call a special meeting of the Co-op’s board. They also unanimously agreed to continue to support the petition asking the store’s management to reinstate both employees with back pay and review its current labor practices.
On June 13, employees Daniel King and John Boutin, both of whom had worked for the store for more than a decade, were fired without notice from the Lebanon store.
King, who worked in the wine department, said at the meeting that he was upset that the Co-op’s management had not explained the reason for his dismissal.
“If I were honestly told what I had done wrong, I would have walked away,” he said. “I have enough guts to walk away when I’m not wanted.”
Meeting facilitator and Norwich resident Sharon Racusin said that the group is trying to communicate with the Co-op’s board of directors to prevent a similar conflict in the future.
“We’re not going to let it go,” Racusin said. “We’re not going to let it happen to anyone else. We don’t want to see another employee of our co-op fired in that way.”
According to New Hampshire’s “employment-at-will” laws, employers can fire employees who have not signed an employment contract without giving explanation or notice. Employers, however, cannot dismiss employees in retaliation for their actions or out of malice.
The Facebook group “Concerned About the Co-op” published a petition on July 7 demanding the reemployment of the two fired men with back pay. As of press time, 358 people had signed.
Don Kreis, a former member of the Co-op’s board of directors, started a counter-petition called “Don’t Squander the Legacy of the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society” on July 8. The petition, which seeks to affirm that the Co-op was in its rights to fire the employees and that it is inappropriate for the Co-op’s thousands of members to override decisions made by the general manager, currently has 92 signatures.
Jim Heffernan, an emeritus English professor and a member of the Co-op since 1965, suggested advocating to meet with the Co-op’s board of directors. Heffernan said that under the Co-op’s bylaws, special meetings can be called if requested by 10 percent of its members. The Co-op currently has around 18,000 members, the Valley News reported.
A special meeting, he said, would solicit a satisfactory response regarding King and Boutin’s firing.
Residents must continue monitoring the situation, Etna resident Tim Cornell said, especially if the reasons for King and Boutin’s dismissal went against New Hampshire state law.
“The concern should be why they were dismissed,” he said. “That could be [of] much deeper concern to all of us than the manner in which they were dismissed.”
To East Thetford resident Liora Alschuler, a 22-year Co-op member, employers have a moral duty to provide reason for the dismissal.
“It’s a violent act to take someone’s livelihood away,” she said.
The Co-op’s board of directors will host a public meeting July 23, but some attendees of Thursday’s meeting were unsure if their voices would be effectively heard.
Community members also discussed other agendas on Thursday, including a possible movement to help employees unionize and the resolution of past issues involving the Co-op’s increased corporatization.
Grantham resident and Co-op member Brian Sullivan said community members should help Co-op employees unionize.
“What is a co-op except for a union of members?” he said.
Lyme resident Barbara Woodard said she feels like King and Boutin’s firing strengthened her feelings against the Co-op. She said she has felt that the Co-op’s managers have made decisions in the past without considering what the community wanted, like the attempt to close the Co-op Service Center. In late 2011, the Co-op announced that it would close the service center in March 2012, even though it is the only car service center in Hanover and one of three gas stations in town. Many locals expressed disappointment that the station would be closed, and the decision was later reversed.
The Thursday meeting was held in the Richard W. Black Recreation and Senior Center. The July 23 meeting will be held at the same location at 4 p.m.
Co-op representatives could not be reached for comment by press time.
