The Wedge Co-op hopes for new beginning

Workers and management try to resolve differences after a contentious year

Comments (0) By Gregory Pratt Wednesday, Jul 18 2012

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"They've been very friendly. We've worked with Doug Christensen [the Wedge's attorney and negotiator] in our retail negotiations before, and he's very thorough," Neff says. "There's never been any hard feelings at the table or any theatrics or anything like that. It's pretty straightforward."

On Wednesday, July 18, the Wedge will sit down with its warehouse workers and continue negotiating a contract.

photo by City Pages

Curtis Neff (left) and Bernie Hesse helped organize workers at the Wedge's warehouse

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They've already "reached agreement on a lot of good language items" for the workers' contract, says Jennifer Christensen, the union's lead negotiator. "We are heading into economic issues."

Also underway is an attempt to hire a replacement general manager for the store. The Wedge's board is now in the process of hiring a search firm.

In the meantime, the Wedge will be just fine without a permanent general manager, board members say.

"One of the things that enables us to not have a full-time interim GM right now is because the Wedge employees are so amazing," Wovcha says. "They're just amazingly competent, amazingly dedicated. The place runs like a well-oiled machine."

[UPDATE: Wedge board president Sarah Wovcha contacted City Pages after publication of this story with the following clarification: "I want to point out that neither I nor any board member has stated that Lindy Bannister was terminated." Wovcha has consistently declined to discuss the nature of Bannister's departure except to say that she is no longer an employee of the Wedge.]