Overview
- The three-day walkout began Thursday at the Original Ghirardelli Chocolate & Ice Cream Shop and prompted the company to close its flagship store during the strike.
- Unite Here Local 2 filed an unfair labor charge with the NLRB on Thursday alleging Ghirardelli withheld requested information about a 6% health-care surcharge during contract talks.
- San Francisco city records for 2025 show Ghirardelli reported collecting $857,071 from the surcharge and spending about $1.18 million on covered employee health care, but the filing aggregates multiple locations and does not break out figures for the unionized flagship.
- The union says the company is proposing an alternative insurance plan that would raise co-pays and reduce coverage, a change workers say would threaten access to critical medications and post-transplant care.
- The NLRB regional office has opened an investigation of the union's charge and the dispute could shape local enforcement of health-surcharge reporting and bargaining transparency while drawing wider attention to benefits in service-sector labor talks.