Forbes

COMPANIES John Mackey says he wants

to make the world a healthier
and happier piace. The unions want
to put him out of business.

New Age
capitalist
By Seth Lubove

W
hen Los Angelenos visit the new Whole
Foods Market in tony Brentwood, they trav-
el back to the de-dyed 1960swith a New
Age t\\ist. There's a "relaxadon stadon" for
in-store massages. Sayings such as "Every
day is Earth Day" dangle from the open-beam rafrers. You ops iji the heart of squishy radicalismBerkeley, Calif.
get a discount if you reuse your shopping bag. What's your Mackey blamed unreasonable demands by the workers'
favorite health food? Try bulk granla and dried fruit. union for contributing to the downfall of the co op. With
But to get to all these goodies, the soccer moms in their that in mind, he refused to take over the exisdng employ-
Range Rovers and the aging hippies in their old vws have ees with the stores. The two affected unions responded by
to cross a picket line organized by the United Eood & pickedng the stores and filing a lawsuit (later withdravm)
Commercid Workers. With expected nadonwide sales this charging Wliole Foods with age discriminadon.
year of S 1.4 billion, tast-growing Whole Foods is still only Cranking up their propaganda machine, the unions
a blip on the radar screen of most large grocery chains. But encouraged left-teaning journals to attack Wlioie Foods and
to the UECW, which represents supermarket employees, to complain about onedme radicals selling out by crossing
Whole Foods is Public Enemy Number One. the picket line. Mackey counterattacked widi enthusiasm.
"From otir perspecdve. Whole Foods is a whole sham," In "Beyond Unions," an arch, 19-page posidon state-
says union spokesman Greg Denier. "They're claiming ment for his employees, he liberally quoted some of his
enlightenment in regards to nutridon favorite libertarians (see box, opposite).
and good health," says Michael unions don't create "Unions are not part of the soludon at
Straeter, head of a picketing UECw Whole Foods Market," he wrote.
local, "and practicing Cro-Mag-
value," says Mackey. "Rather, they are part of the problem,
nonism in [regard to] the rights of ^fundamentally, they're stuck in the old paradigm that all
employees to establish a union." parasites." employees are weak and powerless
It's not just that workers in Whole (childlike?), and that all employers are
Foods' 84 stores have so far preferred greedy and exploitadve, interested only
to remain nonunionized, adding to the compedtive pres- in profits and self-aggrandizement." Compeddon for labor,
sure on the mainline grocery chains. What especially grates not unions and their "Marxist socialist rhetoric," raises
is John Mackey, Whole Foods' bushy-haired libertarian wages and working standards, he argued.
cofoLuider and chief execudve officer. Macke\' feels about As the pickedng condnued, Mackey became even more
trade unions the same way as they feel about him. Which is defiant. "The great m\tli of unions is diat they can create
to say he considers them an abominadon, a stain on the wealth, like Houdini," he scoffs. Recendy Mackey ordered
nadonal escutcheon. stores in places such as West Los Angeles to unfiirl giant
Clad in faded blue jeans and boots sdll dust>' from a banners exposing die picketers as tuiion hires who've never
recent hike in the hls near his home base in Ausdn, Tex., worked at Whole Foods.
the 44-year-old Mackey is as much a crusader for capitalism Yet Mackey is no old-lsliioned, hard-.shelled conserva-
as for Whole Foods. "Basically, labor unions don't create dve. He adheres to a policy tliat limits execudve pay to no
value," he says, sitdng in a headquarters building diat uses more than ten times the average wage (not including a
recycled wood floors and fume-free paint. "Fundamentally, small amount of stock opdons). His employees may wear
they're parasites. They feed on union dues." ponytails and earrings (and those are the guys) and exude
Mackey's clash with the unions goes back to 1990, when criuichy karma. But Mackey parts company with Ben &
Wliole Foods moved into a failed chain of natural food co- Jerry's, the Body Shop and other self-dghteous outfits that

42 Forbes April 6, 1998

 Whole Foods'
capitalist cheer-
leader, John
Mackey
Organic
granla, dried
fruit and liber-
tarian philoso-
phy: Unions
be damned,
he says. Open
competition
will set
labor free.

bite the capitalistic hand that iceds them. He is a defiant
believer in capitalism. Repeating an in-house joke, he says
that ot'WhoIe Foods' 10,000 employees, in the last election
9,998 voted for Bill C^linton, and 2including himvoted
Libertarian.
In Whole Foods' annual report Mackey waxes on one
page about his concern ihr the "well-being of everyone on
earth" and "em'ironmental sensitivit\'," and on anotlier of
wanting to pulverize his nemesis Wild Oats, on its home
turf in Bouider, C^olo. Mackey grins: "Business is just a
game. I don't hate the chief executive of Wild Oats. He's a
nice guy. But I do play to win."
Mackey reserves most of his bile tor the unions, and tor
what he considers their partners in crime., government and
the regulators. Consider his stance on the proposed
Organic Foods Production Act, which would position the
go\'ernment as the arbiter of what constitutes an "organic"
product. Better, he contends, to have a private body func-
tioning similarly to the way that Wall Street's rating agen-
cies grade commercial and municipal paper.
But not just anyone. The Flarth Island Institute is hound-
ing him to certify that his shrimp are caught using turtle-
friendly nets (most are farm-raised). Oh, by the way, he
notes, they'd like to charge a fee tor that certification.
The United Farm Workers union is pestering his stores
over his refusal to sign a petition that would guarantee the
"rights" of strawberry pickers. Not a chance. "The ui-wis
trying to coerce us because we won't sign their damned
petition," he saysthe union is just trying to organize.
"I'm damned if I'm going to sign."
People tor the Fthical Treatment of Animals tanadcs are
after him tor selling tarm-raised ostrich meat. "The t\\ct of
the matter is, we deal in dead animals, and animal-rights
people are against that," he says bluntly. "We seem to be
the lightning rod tor every advocacy group."
But bring 'em on, he dares; "Think about it. We're
getting an incredible amount of publicity we don't have
to pay for." Hi

"This delusion [that unions can "Union trea-

Write to work increase general wage levels] is suries now
Quotables from notables In mainly the result of failure to recog- contain suf-
Chairman Mackey's "Beyond nize that wages are basically deter- ficient funds
Unions" manifesto: mined by labor productivity, tt is for to capitalize
this reason, for many such
"No one has "It may be costly for employers to example, that worker-con-
ever succeeded locate desirable employees, and for wages in the trolled firms which can repay
in the effort to employees to locate desirable em- U.S. were incom- the money with interest, as
.-- \ demonstrate ployers. This i5 an imperfect world, parably bigger many private owners do with
that unionism so competition does not provide than wages in bank loans, and even with loans
could improve complete protection. However, com- England and Ger- from labor unions. Why is it
the conditions petition is the best protection for many all during that some unions or groups of
and raise the the largest number of workers that the decades when the "labor move- workers don't start their own
standard of living of all those eager to has yet been found or ment' in the latter two countries was business?--Robert Nozick,
earn wages."-Ludvifig von Mises, devised.'-Milton and Rose far more advanced."-Henry Hazlitt, Anarchy, State and Utopia
Humar] Action Friedman, Free to Choose Economics in One Lesson

Forbes April 6, 1998 43

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