Produce company closes abruptly, leaving dozens without a job
A former employee claims they were fired after engaging in union activity, but did it cause the company to close its doors?
Reporter: Alexis Fernandez
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - On Thursday, Ron’s Produce Company closed its door abruptly, leaving at least sixty people without a job.
Richard Salazar, an employee said he showed up to work to pick up his paycheck like he's done for the last two years when he got the news.
“All they did was stand there and give us papers, saying they had a memo,” he said.
Just like that, Salazar said he lost his job loading trucks for Ron’s Produce.
He got a letter from the company saying that after thirty years of service, the owner decided to retire.
“No notice at all and from what I think there was some people that showed up from the union and that was the problem right there,” he said.
He said a former employee was fired after trying to organize a union.
Nine On Your Side contacted the National Labor Relations Board and found that a complaint was filed against the company on September 14th.
We showed up to Ron’s Produce to ask them if this charge against them had anything to do with its closure.
Lonny Sternberg, director of operations told us he had no comment.
While we were there, we saw several employees dropping off their uniform at the front gate.
“I just think that was kind of low of them to do it like that, they could of at least gave us time to start looking for another job and tell us what was going on before prior to what they were going to do,” he said.
The NLRB said it's investigating the case to find out whether or not the union activity played a role in the company's closure.
It also told us the employees who worked at the company were not represented by a union.
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