Posted on 12/11/2004 8:12:13 AM PST by pjsbro
At the Food Co-op, Accused of a Little Too Much Cooperation By DAN BARRY
Published: December 11, 2004
THAT sociological marvel known as the Park Slope Food Co-op likes its committees. There is an Inventory Committee, and an Office Committee, and a Saturday Committee, and an Agenda Committee, and coming soon, perhaps, a Committee Committee, dedicated to conjuring even more committees.
The many committees lend structure to a cooperative where the 11,600 members are also owners, invested in its success. If you like to shop in the co-op's cumin-spiced confines for those organic bananas, or that to-die-for Canadian cheddar, you have to pull your weight by working 23/4 hours every four weeks: bagging dried fruit, rotating the yogurt - being cooperative.
Brooklyn, though, is not Nirvana; people are people. Among the mixed-nut medley of committees is the Disciplinary Hearing Committee, the co-op's quiet and rarely used muscle. And tomorrow night, at the close of shopping hours, it is holding a hearing on the case of two veteran members who are accused of "theft of services" and, alas, "extremely uncooperative behavior."
If found guilty by a "Hearing and Deciding Group" of their peers - the co-op strains to avoid terms like jury - the two could be suspended or even banished from the land of soy milk and honey.
David Meltzer, 47, a lawyer, and Jed Sarfaty, 50, a banker, are longtime co-op members. For the last six years they have been Monday night squad leaders, working with a crew of volunteers to ensure that shelves are stocked, shoppers receive assistance, and the 11 o'clock closing goes smoothly.
Over the years, the two men have followed what they say is a longstanding practice by splitting their shifts: one works about 90 minutes, then leaves when the other comes in to oversee the closing. On very rare occasions, they say, they have also signed in as present an absent but conscientious member, sparing the absent from the official "make-up" penalty of working two shifts for every one missed.
"The co-op calls that theft of time," Mr. Meltzer says. "We call it cooperation."
But an interpersonal form of lactose intolerance has developed at the co-op. Some of its paid staff members, called coordinators, think that some volunteers are slacking off when there are always, say, dried mangoes in need of bagging.
A letter to that effect, sent out last June, included the helpful tip that "What to Do When You Think There Is Nothing to Do" lists are available near the co-op's entrance.
Conflict was inevitable. Late one Monday night, some coordinators in the basement sent up carts of food to be unpacked and displayed, Mr. Meltzer says.
"Yogurts, perishables, meat. Produce started coming up that belt like it was going out of style."
He interpreted this to be a jaw-jutting message from the paid staff: you're working a full shift, buster. So, on his next shift four weeks later, he shared his displeasure with a coordinator. "Want to guess what happens, starting at 10:30?" he asks. More carts.
The coordinators complained to the general coordinators, who are in charge of the co-op (as much as anyone is in charge). Joe Holtz, a general coordinator, says that he talked to the men to try and resolve the matter by strongly suggesting that they stop splitting shifts. They agreed.
Sometime later, though, an internal co-op investigation was launched into allegations that the two men were continuing to split shifts and sign in the absent as present. No one was whacked with a ginger root to make them talk, but surveillance-camera tapes were reviewed, logbooks examined, complaint letters filed.
Mr. Sarfaty says that he received stern telephone calls at home, with co-op representatives asking questions like, "Where were you on the night of June 26th?"
What angers him even more is that a relatively small matter, one that could have been worked out with "Let's just get everybody in a room and reach an agreement," has reached the stage of a disciplinary hearing - a disciplinary hearing!
Mr. Meltzer and Mr. Sarfaty admit that they violated the rules. But they say that they have often worked overtime, that their crews were happy and productive, and that as longtime members in good standing - members who profess love for the co-op - they should have been treated more courteously.
The two men also suggest that they are victims of a power struggle within a supposedly egalitarian subculture.
As Mr. Meltzer puts it: "Is the co-op ours (the members) or theirs (the paid staff)?"
Mr. Holtz, a general coordinator who co-founded the co-op in 1973, and Tricia Leith, another general coordinator, say that disciplinary hearings are extremely uncommon - one every other year or so - and are usually of the produce-pilfering variety. They say that member-coordinator relations are generally very good, and dismiss any suggestion that the handling of this case has a Communist-cell rigidity to it.
"I just don't think it's rigid to expect people who signed in to be there," Mr. Holtz says. He adds: "We're not talking about 15 minutes; we're talking about a whole shift, or a half-shift."
Ms. Leith agrees: "The co-op functions because everybody is doing their share."
Once the disciplinary committee took the case, they say, the process had to run its course, no matter that Mr. Meltzer and Mr. Sarfaty had offered to step down as squad leaders.
To do otherwise, they say, would send a demoralizing message to the thousands of members and 51 coordinators - and by the way, just imagine coming up with a monthly work schedule for that many people.
Still, Mr. Holtz says, "It's unfortunate that it got this far."
Tomorrow night, if all goes as scheduled, some co-op members will gather in the second-floor conference room.
Boxes of Belgian chocolate are stacked against a wall, and pamphlets for a workshop on cat-neutering are available on a table.
A "presenter" for the disciplinary committee will lay out the case. Mr. Meltzer and Mr. Sarfaty will respond. And the Hearing and Deciding Group will render a ver- - oops - will come to a decision. There is no appeal.
"What's the worst that can happen?" says Mr. Meltzer. "That I shop at Key Food?"
"Hearing and Deciding Groups" scare the hell outta me!!
As for myself, my time (both on the job and with my family) is far too valuable to waste a night every week bagging mangoes.
Moreover, by doing so I am depriving some less fortunate person of a full-time job.
I am happy to keep patronizing my local for-profit grocery store.
-ccm
As for myself, my time (both on the job and with my family) is far too valuable to waste a night every week bagging mangoes.
Moreover, by doing so I am depriving some less fortunate person of a full-time job.
I am happy to keep patronizing my local for-profit grocery store.
-ccm
LOL The tone is the funnist I've ever read in the NYSlime.
The NYT takes a surprisingly sarcastic tone. LOL
Workers in a local Co-op in Asheville got the bright idea to unionize (baggers, stockers and cashiers) for higher wages. They got the union(Teamsters), which drove up prices that resulted in a competing co-op opening up and taking 1/2 the business.
We patronize the Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier. They have stuff like cheeses you can't get anywhere else. But it certainly is an interesting place.
With 11,600 members I fail to see why any of them need to work one night a week.
Two nights a year would provide 62 workers a day.
Am I missing something?
My first reaction was that no one should be a member of a food co-op. My second was that every liberal should be forced to join a co-op or a kibbutz, to cure them of their liberalism.
"Four rutabagas GOOOOOOOOOD! Two rutabagas BAAAAAAAAAAAD!"
Hummm..If someone wants to be a member of a co-op, more power tp them..if someone doesn't , more power to them......We don't have to find right or wrong about everything: this is a free land..let's keep it that way....
Some co-ops work really well. As long as they are private entities I see no problem with them.
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