Park Slope Food Coop

The coop has a long history of political action. During the apartheid regime, goods from South Africa were banned; during the Pinochet regime, Chilean grapes were removed; Nestlé products were banned because of the company's campaign to promote infant formula instead of breastfeeding.[13]

Coop policy dictates that existing boycotts are discontinued unless renewed annually. Since 2004, the PSFC has boycotted Coca-Cola products (including Minute Maid and Odwalla), citing the company's labor practices and exploitation of natural resources in third-world countries.[14] Since 2010, the PSFC has boycotted Flaum Appetizing Products for violations of labor law. Flaum is a local kosher producer known for hummus sold under its "Mike & Joe's" label.

In 2008, the PSFC General Meeting resolved that the coop would discontinue selling bottled water [15] and stop providing plastic shopping bags at checkout.[16]

The Coop collects a variety of hard-to-recycle plastic packaging for upcycling. This recycling initiative started with the collecting of yogurt cups[17] to be upcycled into toothbrushes and other personal care goods by Recycline in 2008, at a time when New York City's municipal recycling limited the types of plastic accepted. With changes in NYC's trash recycling policies,[18] the Park Slope Food Coop put together the hard-to-recycle plastics collection currently in place with Terracycle for single serve baby food pouches, plastic cling wrap, produce bags, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, and water filters.[19][20]

In 2009, The Jewish Daily Forward[21] incorrectly stated or implied that the coop was considering a ban on Israeli products in protest of the 2009 Israeli military offensive in Gaza. In actuality, no such proposal had been placed on the agenda of the PSFC General Meeting (GM).[22] The stories were based on two letters-to-the-editor in the February 12, 2009 edition of the PSFC's Linewaiters' Gazette.[23] The Gazette publishes member submissions regardless of opinion.[24] For three years members of the coop expressed their opinions in the Gazette regarding a potential boycott of Israel, and the July 26, 2011, General Meeting discussed holding a coop-wide referendum on joining the BDS movement, with no action taken.[25] The March 27, 2012 GM, which was held at Brooklyn Technical High School due to an unprecedented turnout of nearly 1,700 members (eleven times more than typical), after a heated discussion considered and rejected a proposal to hold such a referendum.[26][27][28][29]

In 2010, in response to an announcement by the menswear retailer Barneys New York that they would be opening a location in Brooklyn called Barneys Coop, the PSFC General Meeting (GM) considered taking action in light of the company's apparent violation of New York's Cooperative Corporations Law, which restricts the use of the term "coop" to cooperative businesses.[30] The general coordinators informed the state attorney general of the violation and presented a plan for a lawsuit to the July 2010 GM, which rejected the proposal for anticipated costs. A more limited proposal was approved by the August 2010 GM but later overturned on procedural grounds.[31]

On January 26, 2016, the Park Slope Food Coop voted in a change to The Rules For The General Meeting. It stipulated that in order to pass any boycott, a super-majority of at least 75% of the General Meeting must agree to the boycott.

In the summer of 2018 a group of paid staff at the Park Slope Food Coop started unionizing efforts with the help of RWDSU,[32][33] a union representing grocery store employees and other food chain workers.[34][35] Among the issues raised are job security (an end to "at-will employment"), unequal treatment in the work place (racism and other forms of discrimination) and a desire to better align the Coop with international cooperative principles and values of democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity.[36]

On April 23, 2019 several employees filed charges of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board.[37][38] The complaint includes allegations of harassment, coercive statements and interrogation.[39][40] Given the alleged unlawful interference in the unionization process by management, the General Coordinators of the Coop have agreed to guarantee non-interference in the unionization efforts, this has been disputed by union organizers and has been one of the issues that led to the NLRB complaint.[41] The Park Slope Food Coop's Labor Committee, a group founded to provide "leadership and information on the labor issues that impact the coop’s food system,"[42] voiced their support of a neutrality agreement.[43]

The NLRB settled with the Coop regarding the Unfair Labor Practice charges, as a result the Park Slope Food Coop was required to post a notice to employees stating that going forward specified labor rights will not be violated.[44][45]

PSFC's work shift requirement, which includes every adult member of a household having to partake, has inspired criticism over the years.[46][47] In 2011, The New York Times also reported allegations in February 2011 that some members were asking their nannies to cover their work shifts.[48]