Workers at Berkeley’s Urban Ore salvage shop begin open-ended strike

Editors’ note: A version of this story was first published by the E’ville Eye, a news outlet in Emeryville. Berkeleyside’s Iris Kwok contributed additional reporting.

Unionized workers at Urban Ore kicked off what they are calling an open-ended strike on Saturday to protest what they claim are unfair labor practices by the company.

For the uninitiated, Urban Ore is a 45-year-old, family-run salvage yard and reuse store at 900 Murray St. in West Berkeley. They stock building materials, furniture, clothing, household items, sporting goods, art — just about anything can be found in their sprawling warehouse.

On Saturday, an estimated 100 workers and supporters gathered at the salvage yard. “What’s disgusting? Union-Busting!” they chanted, taking turns with a megaphone while speaking from the bed of a parked truck.

In April 2023, citing understaffing, high turnover, and wage structure, Urban Ore workers voted to unionize with Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the vote was certified without a challenge from the owners, Dan Knapp and Mary Lou Van Deventer.

Since unionization, Urban Ore workers allege that the company has engaged in unfair labor practices, including canceling and delaying bargaining sessions, and appointing a lead negotiator without sufficient authority to reach agreements.

On March 8, the union voted to authorize a strike aiming to push ownership to engage in “good-faith negotiations” after what they claim are nearly two years of stalled bargaining.

“They do not respect the value of our labor; they’ve even told us to look for other jobs if we want to better our pay and working conditions,” said Benno Giammarinaro a UC Berkeley Ph.D. student who works in the receiving department and has served on the union’s organizing committee. “We know that our work is necessary for Urban Ore to operate. We are prepared to stay on the picket line until the owners recognize that they rely on our labor and agree to a fair contract.”

In an interview with Berkeleyside, Knapp pushed back against most of the union’s claims, saying he’d met with the union “in good faith” more than 30 times and that two federal mediators had been called to help facilitate bargaining sessions — but they stopped attending after concluding that both sides were too far apart to reach an agreement. He said a bargaining session was canceled due to his attorney’s unavoidable scheduling conflict, not “out of any malicious intent.”

Knapp said on Monday that he estimated the weekend work stoppage had caused Urban Ore to lose out on around $18,000 in revenue. If the strike continues, “layoffs are a possibility” to keep the business afloat, he said.

And while the co-owners haven’t entirely scrapped their plan to transition the business into a worker-owned co-op, Van Deventer said they’ve put it “on a backburner” as they continue to negotiate with the union and are instead exploring other ways of transferring ownership to workers, such as establishing an employee ownership trust.

“I, for one, lost the taste because of the attitude of hostility,” Van Deventer said, adding that over the weekend, she arrived at Urban Ore to hear picketers and a union member engaged in a back-and-forth chant of “Scrap Who / Mary Lou.”

Urban Ore founded with mission of ending age of waste

Urban Ore was founded in 1980 by Knapp, a sociologist, and Van Deventer, an environmental journalist. Following a mandate by the City of Berkeley to reduce landfill waste, they founded Urban Ore to help resell used items that would normally be scrapped.

They solidified their mission in 1991, “To End The Age of Waste,” reflecting their dedication to environmental sustainability through the reclamation and resale of discarded materials.

The business persisted throughout the 1990s often “dangling by a thread.” In 2002, with the help of the City of Berkeley, they moved to a corrugated sheet metal warehouse at 900 Murray Street.

The warehouse was originally built for Tay-Holbrook, Inc., c. 1946. Tay-Holbrook, a consolidation of two companies, was a Gold Rush-era supplier of metal stoves and ranges that evolved into a general plumbing supply company. At the time, it was “one of the largest warehouses ever to be built in Berkeley.”

Tay-Holbrook declared bankruptcy in 1964 and disappeared from news archives shortly after. The building was next occupied by East Bay Steel who liquidated in 1999.

Urban Ore found its footing over the next decade. They acquired the three-acre property in 2009. The facility now claims to divert approximately 8,000 tons of waste from landfills per year. (The facility currently employs a total staff of 39, including the two co-owners, with about 20 bargaining unit members.)

While COVID knocked out many in the second-hand salvaged goods industry, Urban Ore has been able to withstand it and even thrive. Nearby Ohmega Salvage was not as fortunate and closed in 2023 after 49 years in business.

Knapp and Van Deventer, who are now both in their 80s, have since 2017 told local media, including Berkeleyside, that they are looking to transition away from the daily operations and exploring ways of transferring the business to employees as a worker-owned cooperative to preserve the company’s legacy and ensure its continued commitment to zero-waste principles.

Complicated wage structure, raise process at heart of conflict

Among the changes workers are seeking is a change in their wage structure, which they say offloads risks to workers and results in unpredictable pay.

Urban Ore’s current structure consists of three parts: regular base wage pay, revenue sharing (workers get 15% of the store’s revenues, which adds around $7 to $9 to their hourly wage rate) and profit sharing (bonuses typically doled out twice a year, though this has been put on pause since the union was formed as legal and other costs have risen, Knapp said).

“The flexible system has proven itself through 44 years of ups and downs,” Knapp said. “What they want is instead guaranteed wage that’s higher than what Mary Lou and I made to start with.” (He added that he and his wife each take an annual salary of about $50,000 and have not participated in the revenue sharing for two years.)

Spencer Jordan, who has been working as a salvager at Urban Ore since 2021 and is the treasurer of Urban Ore Workers, said the incentive system is “pretty universally disliked by the employees here.”

The union has also alleged the owners fired two of its bargaining unit members, citing lateness — an action they consider to be “union busting.” (Knapp said only one bargaining unit member has been fired and not for lateness, though he did not elaborate on why they were fired.) Some workers who are in management’s good graces have come late and have faced no discipline for it, according to Jordan. The union is hoping a labor contract will codify rules and prevent favoritism.

Another major point of disagreement was how raises were decided. The owners view the current system, in which employees can apply to become “specialists” and get a corresponding pay bump for taking on more tasks, as one that encourages meritocracy. The union members feel pay should increase with seniority and are pushing for what they consider to be a more regular raise schedule.

“One of my co-workers has been here for nine years and makes the same as me, [and] another co-worker of mine has been here for 21 years and he makes, to my knowledge, a dollar more than I,” Jordan said. “We are fighting for a future where the people who work here don’t feel they’ve wasted their lives in doing it.”

The union has announced that it will launch a crowdfunding campaign, asking those sympathetic to their cause to help financially support the workers participating in the walkout.