From March 22 to April 30, Urban Ore workers went on strike after the company stalled contract negotiations for two years and our pay decreased while the cost of living increased. Working people from the Bay Area and beyond stood with us in solidarity, refusing to cross our picket line, and the company was forced to bargain. Through the strike, we’ve won major rights for workers and we are much closer to having a strong first contract. But now, Urban Ore wants to punish the workers who went on strike by refusing to give us our jobs back unless we accept significant staffing cuts!

When we suspended the strike, Urban Ore signed an agreement that everyone who went on strike would be fully reinstated as soon as the company had the financial ability to pay our labor costs. We set an agreed upon revenue benchmark to evaluate financial ability, and the company - by their own admission - has met this benchmark. In fact, they have far exceeded it. Urban Ore is blatantly violating the agreement they signed by claiming they still can’t pay for our labor with their increased revenue. But they are refusing to show the union sufficient financial information to prove their claim.

The same owners that say they can’t afford to pay their workers decided they could afford to spend over $200,000 on union busting lawyers. Those same owners also decided they could afford to lose over $200,000 in revenue while refusing to negotiate with our union for the first 35 days of our strike. Now, they want the union to believe they can’t pay us without showing the records to prove it. Conveniently, it’s only the striking workers in the bargaining unit that they can’t pay.

Urban Ore is putting short-term profits before their promises to their workers, their environmental mission and the community. The company has already cut labor costs by implementing a hiring freeze across almost every department that dates back to last summer. Presently, they want the union to agree that most striking workers should have their hours cut by 60% indefinitely - a cut that would amount to losing approximately $1000/month in wages. We can’t live on those wages and workers can’t sustain our operational output with that degree of understaffing. Fewer people working isn’t going to keep more waste out of the landfill.

We are asking Urban Ore customers and workers everywhere to sign this petition demanding that Urban Ore abide by the terms of their signed agreement and fully reinstate the workers who went on strike immediately. If the company continues to propose job cuts on the basis of an inability to pay, we demand that Urban Ore prove this inability by furnishing all relevant financial information to the union.