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OVERVIEW
The Co-op on 55th and Lake Park has been a staple of the community for decades. It was truly a community landmark, partially owned and run by local residents. Unfortunately, due to serious financial downfalls, the Co-op closed its door in late January of this year. With the closing of the Hyde Park co-op over a hundred workers have lost their jobs. With the Co-op gone the University, who owns the property, starting taking bids for its replacement. Eventually it came down to Dominick’s and Treasury Island and Treasury Island won the contract. While the neighborhood has a new grocery store to provide food and jobs, it comes with a price. Treasury Island is known be a higher class grocery store with, as the University put it, a European style. However, the company is more than an odd replacement addition to Hyde Park, it has also been known to be a bad employer. While every Co-op worker was guaranteed an interview, out of the over a hundred works only thirty were hired on. In addition, most of the employees that had worked at the Co-op for many years have not received a job offer. It has been known to discourage workers from working full time (and thus getting benefits) and has a low pay scale that would bar experienced, full time workers from receiving a salary comparable to their previous one. Perhaps one of the biggest problems with Treasury Island is that the workers have very little say in these matters given their anti-union stance. Treasure Island has consistently blocked shops from unionizing by actively campaigning against them.
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