Organized labor groups are using environmental laws to oppose a new Whole Foods. “You have here a situation where CEQA is being weaponized to try to deal with a dispute and concerns that are really unrelated to environmental impacts.”
The grocery store chain has been on an expansion spree in The City, opening two new locations in the last year alone and getting ever more San Franciscans hooked on kombucha and artisanal soaps. But Whole Foods’ growth has also fueled criticism about its labor practices and the activities of its parent company, Amazon.
"We were not opposed just because Amazon Whole Foods is a non-union grocer. We were opposed, because they wanted to bypass a public vetting process that everyone else has to go through,” said Jim Araby, a spokesperson for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, which filed the appeal. “Amazon has structured Whole Foods to be another node in their delivery center.
The Planning Department disagreed. In their analysis, the department found that the car and truck emissions generated by the project would not rise to levels considered significant by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Planning also found that the impacts on transit, traffic and emergency vehicles wouldn’t be significant according to the standard metrics The City uses.
“Amazon is not a fit for San Francisco, a progressive town, a union town,” Tony Vargas, one of the appellants and a member of UFCW Local 5, said at the hearing. “A company that does not stand by its employees in regard to COVID-19 health and safety precautions, who doesn’t provide livable wages or good healthcare should not be allowed to do business in our town.”
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