San Francisco Ghirardelli Workers Strike at Iconic Flagship Store
Dozens of chocolatiers, cashiers and other employees at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company’s flagship store in San Francisco entered the second day of a strike on Friday.
The walkout, expected to end Saturday night, aims to pressure the company to agree to concessions after more than a year of contract negotiations.
Picketers at Ghirardelli Square urged consumers to boycott the brand’s popular business at one of the city’s most iconic tourist destinations. The strike at the Original Ghirardelli Chocolate & Ice Cream Shop is the first in more than 40 years, and comes as unionized employees oppose a company proposal they said would gut their health care benefits, making them more expensive.
Fredrick Jones, a greeter at the shop for 17 years, told KQED he fears not being able to afford medication that keeps his body from rejecting a heart transplant he underwent last October.
“This benefit that we have right now is very important to us. It helped me out big time with my heart transplant,” Jones, a 47-year-old San Francisco resident, said. “That’s why we’re doing this strike, to let people know that the company is not respecting employees like they should.”
A spokesperson for the Lindt & Sprüngli Group, which owns Ghirardelli, said in a statement that the company values and respects its employees.
Ghirardelli, one of the nation’s oldest chocolate companies, was founded in San Francisco during the Gold Rush by Italian chocolatier Domenico “Domingo” Ghirardelli.
“We are currently in active contract negotiations with the union and are committed to bargaining in good faith,” the spokesperson wrote in an e-mail. “Our main focus right now is on reaching an agreement that supports our employees and ensures the long-term success of our business.”
Lindt & Sprüngli, headquartered in Switzerland, posted nearly 6 billion Swiss francs in sales last year, or more than $7.3 billion. Its operating profits totaled 970 million francs, or about $1.2 billion, after expenses and the costs of goods.
The union representing the 45 strikers accused the company of bargaining in bad faith by refusing to share relevant information, such as how much it profits from a 6% “healthcare fee” charged to customers at Ghirardelli Plaza locations.
Management aims to switch employees’ health plan to one that would impose unaffordable co-payments for emergency room visits or critical services, said Sonya Karabel, campaign researcher at Unite Here Local 2.
“Customers expect, ‘Oh, okay, this [fee] is gonna cover workers’ health insurance.’ And yet, Ghirardelli is trying to cut their health insurance,” Karabel said. “They need to be transparent about what kind of resources they’re getting from customers that are supposed to be dedicated to paying for health care coverage.”
Last year, disputes over health benefits became a flash point driving work stoppages nationwide, as medical coverage costs continued to rise, according to a report by researchers at Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker.
In recent months, Bay Area service workers at the University of California, warehouse staff at the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett and patient care employees at Kaiser Permanente have said that protecting or improving their health insurance was a main reason for striking.