New Seasons Strike Ends, Boycott Still On

Union accepts company's proposal for mediated discussions for Randy Foster's reinstatement

Randy Foster standing outside the Arbor Lodge New Seasons on the first day of the strike January 28.

Ten days, six stores, three snow flurries, and many logs burned in an oil drum later—the strike at New Season demanding Randy Foster’s reinstatement at Arbor Lodge has ended. This morning workers returned to work. That is, after a bargaining session, the first in person discussion between the New Season Labor Union (NSLU) and New Seasons Labor Relations (HR) since Foster was fired on January 28. Now the union and company are set to hold mediated discussions about bringing Foster back, according to an NSLU email. However, the union maintains that customers should boycott all New Seasons stores until they reach a first contract.

I wrote a few stories chronicling Foster’s termination, which immediately sparked a walk out at the Arbor Lodge store he had worked at as a cashier for 19 years. New Seasons canned Foster unceremoniously for “breaking Oregon break laws" due to him working on his break. The reality? Foster helped his disabled co-worker close out his till at the end of his shift, a task Foster says took all of 20 seconds.¹

Mikey Munns has worked at New Seasons 10 years and is the legally blind co-worker that Foster was helping before he got fired.

While the strike begun spontaneously² at Arbor Lodge, with the help of the Coalition of Independent Unions’ Strike Fund, community supporters from local small businesses and the Democratic Socialists of America donating supplies, and a small army of worker-activist willing to maintain the picket line while making calls for strike fund donations, the strike grew. Each passing day it seemed another store was voting to join the strike. In the end it came to encompass six stores and two all day picket lines: Seven Corners (the other picket line), Slabtown, Grant Park, Concordia, Sellwood.

I’ve reported extensively on the New Seasons campaign over the past year, in the Northwest Labor Press, and even an interview with (newly voted) NSLU co-chair Norah Rivera on this here blog. This nine day strike is something really new from the plucky, upstart union, who in three years time has grown from zero members to over 1,100 across 11 stores (over half the company!).

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Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) provided fire can.

This really marks a new moment for the union and we will see where contract negotiations go from here as the two sides have moved, but remain significantly apart on economics.

The next scheduled bargaining session will be on February 18.

But for now, this latest strike action should be examined strategically as it is potentially an interesting (and powerful) shift for the long term in favor of the union. Here are a few loose thoughts on the union’s strategy I have running in my mind:

1. New Seasons Labor Union were nimble and more unpredictable than the company on this strike.

   1. In many ways a spontaneous walk out is more impactful on the company’s bottom line as they are not able to plan for replacement labor when workers are off the job, shutting down business for longer and more completely. As more stores joined the strike each day, it left the company wondering which will be next and which should we prepare to find coverage for? Oftentimes this threat is just as nauseating to management as a strike announced far in advance across more stores (see the UAW’s “Stand Up Strikes” in 2024).

2. NSLU held strategic and impactful picket lines at core stores, but not at all on strike.

   1. This allowed for workers to allocate their time to maximize impact at stores they wanted to demonstrate the biggest point at (Arbor Lodge, and first unionized, Seven Corners). Worker-organizers could spread, reinforce, and maintain morale as the strike continued, becoming the longest in NSLU’s relatively short history. Effectively they were striking more with less!

3. Retail facing companies are at risk of pickets being effective even when workers cross.

   1. Back to this more with less point. The amount of workers who may have initially walked off the job at a store being picketed may dwindle depending on the capacity of strike fund support. But this challenge also presents an opportunity for the union. With an effectively run picket, and coordination with workers inside the shop still working, the union could shut down business at picketed stores due to overwhelming community support for Randy/NSLU AND the company still has to pay workers’ wages to essentially stand around an empty/nearly empty store.

4. Direct action can be oxygen for a fire, building capacity.

   1. This may seem counter intuitive with all the talk in organizing spaces about “burnout.” Even though taking action can be hard, time consuming, and exhausting, it generally also is the way to develop new leaders and see people genuinely step up in ways they may not have before. Getting someone to be involved in the union is a lot harder when an organizer’s ask is more abstract (even if it’s necessary work): help us think about a plan, help us with administrative work, help us maintain a spreadsheet, etc. However, take on a role for a strike to support the co-worker you’ve loved for two decades? Seems more directly inspiring to me. Call this list of community supporters and ask them to donate to our strike fund? Sounds great! Now that’s a foot in the door for new leaders. I’m not here to say that a strike ISN’T tiring and difficult work, but often “burnout” comes in times when there is a lull in activity, and therefore it is harder to ask others for help.

These are obviously just stray thoughts, which need to be fleshed out as time passes and we can all reflect. Cheers!

Randy Foster on the sixth day of the strike holding a sign that reads, “New Seasons Fired Me! Ask me why.”

1. Read my full story in Portland Mercury and an interview with Foster the day of the firing for Northwest Labor Press in print.

2. Less than two hours after Foster was fired workers printed out flyers, communicated with other stores, and were out forming a picket line at Arbor Lodge.