Gay Community Center Must Not Showcase Antilabor Whole Foods
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When the Center on Halsted revealed in 2003 that Whole Foods Markets had proposed becoming the "anchor tenant" in the new gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community center, the gay press and probably many of its readers seemed elated by this development. After all, it was widely reported, Whole Foods was "gay friendly," and proposed sinking dollars into construction costs.

With a Center board and a beaming Richard Daley portrayed as wildly in support of the deal, the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network together with the local AFL-CIO affiliated Pride at Work chapter pointed out a fact being lost in all the hoopla: Whole Foods Markets has an antilabor record second to none among a new generation of robber barons who have enshrined opposition to unions as corporate dogma. Whole Foods CEO, or maybe more accurately chief guru, John Mackey even wrote a serving book extolling the supposed virtues of a labor-free environment for his "team members." Of course Mackey's "one big organic food family" omits the enhancement afforded to the boss's bottom line by a nonunion operation.

In Madison, Wisconsin and Tyson's Corner Maryland, Mackey's agents played dirty with workers trying to win union recognition. Complaints are pending before the National Labor Relations Board.

Raising a phony issue of "one hundred workers" against the future of "gay youth," some Whole Foods supporters seek to pit two groups of people against one another when in fact the community center could easily serve both. The solution is not difficult to fathom: the Center on Halsted board needs to find another tenant who will recognize the value of both gay youth and a work force benefiting from a union contract.

Most LGBT people are wage-earners. Very few are wealthy stockbrokers or inheritors of huge family fortunes. Just like other workers, gay workers benefit from higher wages and benefits and some protection against arbitrary treatment brought about by a contract with employers. Local 881 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union has published a chart showing the benefits won by organized workers at Dominicks and Jewel as compared to Whole Foods lower paid workers with lesser health insurance benefits, er, I mean, "team members."

Additionally, organized labor in Springfield has been among our most ardent supporters in the efforts to amend the Illinois Human Relations Act to include LGBT people as a protected class and to beat back vicious antigay state constitutional provisions that would ban marriage equality in Illinois.

Whole Foods is not the only game in town. The new Center on Halsted is a prize that many labor friendly or at least labor-neutral companies would gladly support as a way of accessing the LGBT community. This new center-piece of our community needs to show solidarity with labor, not opposition to our own working people and our friends in organized labor.

The coming weeks will see mounting efforts to get the Center board to change course. Stay tuned.