LA TIMES/DAILY PILOT: Mother’s Market suspends 15 Costa Mesa workers participating in union drive

Mother’s Market & Kitchen has suspended more than a dozen workers months into a campaign to unionize the flagship store in Costa Mesa.

Dubbed the “Costa Mesa 15” by union supporters, the suspended employees work at the store on Newport Boulevard and 19th Street, though the wider organizing effort has spread to other stores in Orange County and in nearby Signal Hill.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324, which seeks to represent Mother’s Market employees, claims the suspended workers have either signed union cards, supported a petition calling for scheduling changes or are featured on a  “Hearts United” website.