HUFFINGTON
03.10.13
DAMON DAHLEN
BREAD LINE
agement and a consultant, who
outlined the reasons why the employees didn’t need a union. The
bakers say the meetings were held
at hotels in Kalamazoo, Mich.,
just before the union election, and
started in the morning, right after they’d finished their overnight
shifts, and lasted several hours.
According to the NLRB complaint, Saber promised workers
promotions if they didn’t unionize and told them he would fight
the union “until his dying breath.”
He also said it would be “futile”
for them to unionize because “he
would delay the certification ... as
long as possible no matter the cost.”
According to bakers who attended the meetings, the pressure
from Saber also included religious appeals. Well-known as a
Christian, Saber has been a board
member of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and the name
Bread of Life (like another Saber
holding, Manna Development) has
obvious religious connotations.
(The website for the Graham organization tells the story of Saber
once proselytizing a friend as the
pair drove together in a Ferrari
during a Ronald McDonald House
Charities fundraiser.)
According to the bakers, Saber
said workers shouldn’t unionize
in part because Bread of Life is a
Christian company that looks after its own.
“We had to hear about how he
was a good Christian who’d take
care of us so we needed to stop
this union nonsense,” said Vo-
In November
2012, more
than one
hundred fastfood workers
walked off
their jobs at
McDonald’s,
Wendy’s and
Burger King
for a one-day
strike in New
York City,
urging chains
to pay a living
wage.