Whole Foods to buy beef from feedlot despite labor conflict

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-25/1213127354200980.xml&storylist=orlocal

6/10/2008, 12:41 p.m. PDT
The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Whole Foods Markets says it will continue to buy Country Natural Beef finished at a Boardman feedlot, despite a labor dispute between feedlot owners and the United Farm Workers, the Oregonian newspaper reports.

It reverses Whole Foods' earlier stand against buying cattle finished at Beef Northwest until the labor dispute was resolved.

The United Farm Workers has tried for more than a year to organize 80 workers at Beef Northwest, the state's largest feedlot.

But the union and Beef Northwest have not agreed on how to proceed with a union election, and that impasse has grown into a larger dispute involving Country Natural Beef and retailers, including Whole Foods.

Country Natural Beef, a cooperative of 120 family ranches that raise cattle under sustainable guidelines, sends its cattle to Beef Northwest's feedlot in Boardman for finishing. Whole Foods is Country Natural Beef's biggest customer, making up 70 percent of the co-op's business.

Libba Letton, spokeswoman for Whole Foods in Austin, Texas, said the United Farm Workers e-mail campaign originally spurred the Whole Foods to ask Country Natural Beef to switch feedlots. The company never stopped carrying Country Natural Beef, but said last month that it would stop placing cattle from the program at Beef Northwest.

FULL story at link.

[Sherman A1]

1. Unfortunate, but no surprise here

One suspects that Whole Foods doesn't give to much of care as to supporting labor.