Community News

City of Irvine to Introduce Grocery Worker Retention Ordinance for Smaller Stores

 

by: Leigh Shelton
Published: August 11, 2026

 

IRVINE...Dozens of Mother’s Market grocery workers and their allies will attend the council meeting of the City of Irvine Tuesday evening to voice support for a proposed ordinance that may save their jobs. 

The Irvine Grocery Worker Retention Ordinance is modeled after a state law designed to help grocery workers hold onto jobs in the event of a merger or sale of the business. It requires companies retain workers 90 days after a sale and requires just cause for terminations before then. 

State law already protects workers in a sale, but there is a loophole in which the law only applies to big grocery stores 15,000 square feet, Irvine’s local ordinance would apply to smaller footprint stores, keeping up with the changing trends in grocery store size.

“Smaller footprint stores are the trend these days,” said Andrew Hauserman, organizing director at UFCW 324, the grocery workers’ union.  “But no matter the size, the workers’ need for respect and protection is still the same. That’s what this new local ordinance addresses.” 

Mother’s Market workers are organizing a union in seven of the 12 Mother’s locations. 

Formerly a local company, Mother’s Market was bought in 2016 by Mill Road Capital. Mill Road is a private equity company based in Connecticut that raises capital from pension funds and other investors to buy and control businesses from groceries to fast casual restaurants. 

Private equity has creeped into nearly every facet of our economy. The grocery sector is no different. Leaders at UFCW know the “private equity playbook” well.

“Typically private equity companies sell companies they buy within 5-7 years and wind down investment funds in 10,” Hauserman said. “We believe a sale is overdue.” 

These types of sales introduce incredible uncertainty for workers, who aren’t guaranteed to retain their position in the event of a sale absent this type of ordinance.   

At the council meeting Mother’s Market workers will share that they do not want a sale to be used as a way to kill their union drive, as union organizers have seen tried before. Mother’s Market workers are particularly concerned about mass firings after 15 of their union supporting co-workers were suspended in Costa Mesa. Workers are still on suspension. 

“We do the work,” said David Shtilkind, a juice bar employee at Mother’s Market Irvine. “We believe the people who do the work should have a seat at the table.” 

Shtilkind and his coworkers have been campaigning publicly for a union since April of this year.

“We can help make these stores better for shoppers, workers, and the whole local community," Shtilkind said. "We don’t have to be collateral damage in a private equity sale."