Staff who filed for a union election at a Chipotle in Augusta, Maine, are accusing the corporate of in search of to undermine their marketing campaign by closing the restaurant.
The corporate notified workers of the closing on Tuesday morning, hours earlier than the 2 sides have been scheduled to participate in a listening to earlier than the Nationwide Labor Relations Board concerning the attainable election.
“Now we have been unable to adequately employees this distant restaurant,” Laurie Schalow, the corporate’s chief company affairs officer, stated in a press release. Ms. Schalow added that “due to these ongoing staffing challenges, there is no such thing as a likelihood of reopening within the foreseeable future, so we’ve made the choice to completely shut the restaurant.”
A lawyer representing the employees filed a cost with the labor board contending that the closing was an unlawful act of retaliation.
“I’m referring to this as Union Busting 101,” stated the lawyer, Jeffrey Neil Younger, who often represents unions within the state. “It’s a basic response — workers resolve to arrange and the employer says it’s closing the shop.”
Learn Extra on Organized Labor within the U.S.
The labor board will examine the cost and concern a proper criticism if it finds advantage within the accusation, at which level the case would go earlier than an administrative legislation decide. The 2 sides may attain a settlement beforehand.
A handful of staff on the retailer walked off the job in mid-June to protest what they stated have been unsafe situations that stemmed from understaffing and inadequate coaching.
“Not being correctly educated to arrange meals has a variety of dangers to each the preparer and the individuals consuming the meals,” stated Brandi McNease, a employee concerned within the walkout and the union marketing campaign. “You are concerned about knife abilities, utilizing gear that’s harmful — scorching, sharp.”
Inside a couple of days, the corporate closed the shop to the general public whereas it sought to enhance staffing, together with retaining two recruiting specialists, in accordance with Ms. Schalow. Throughout this time, staff continued to report back to the shop, the place they acquired some coaching and helped clear it, however usually for fewer hours every week than they beforehand labored.
On June 22, staff filed a petition to carry a union election. The labor board requires a minimum of 30 % of staff to point their assist earlier than it can order one.
The listening to scheduled for Tuesday was meant to contemplate arguments from the 2 sides concerning the proposed election. Chipotle had asserted in filings that the election shouldn’t go ahead, partly as a result of the shop was understaffed and so the employees eligible to vote wouldn’t be absolutely consultant of its eventual work power.
Mr. Younger, the lawyer representing the employees, stated the closing may chill organizing efforts at different shops within the chain, together with these underway in Lansing, Mich., the place staff have additionally filed for a union election, and New York Metropolis.
“By closing the Augusta retailer, it’s signaling to Chipotle staff elsewhere who’re concerned in or considering nascent organizational drives that in the event you arrange, you could be out of job,” Mr. Younger stated.
Ms. Schalow, the Chipotle official, stated in her assertion that closing the shop “has nothing to do with union exercise.” The corporate stated it had closed 13 areas out of about 3,000 due to staffing points, efficiency, lease agreements and different enterprise causes over the previous 18 months. Many of the closings seem to have come within the first half of final yr.
Chipotle has supplied the Augusta staff 4 weeks of severance pay based mostly on their hours over the previous two weeks, which have usually been decrease than earlier than the restaurant closed to the general public. It has not supplied to put the employees at different areas in Maine, the closest of which is roughly an hour away, in accordance with the corporate.
Ms. McNease stated she and her co-workers deliberate to struggle to have the shop reopened. “Nobody is bailing now,” she stated.
Chipotle is amongst a number of employers within the service trade whose staff have sought to unionize over the previous yr. Roughly 200 corporate-owned Starbucks areas have voted to unionize since final fall, as have staff at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island, an REI retailer in Manhattan and an Apple retailer in Maryland.
The labor board has formally accused Starbucks of closing sure shops in retaliation for union organizing. The corporate has denied the accusations.
Final week, Starbucks stated it was closing 16 further shops due to security considerations like crime, which it stated have been mirrored in incident stories over the previous yr. The union representing the newly unionized Starbucks staff has filed fees of unfair labor practices, accusing the corporate of closing the shops to undermine organizing exercise or keep away from bargaining with unionized staff.
