Employees 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 staff of the closing on Tuesday morning, hours earlier than the 2 sides had been scheduled to participate in a listening to earlier than the Nationwide Labor Relations Board in regards to the doable election.
“We now have been unable to adequately employees this distant restaurant,” Laurie Schalow, the corporate’s chief company affairs officer, mentioned in a press release. Ms. Schalow added that “due to these ongoing staffing challenges, there isn’t any chance 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,” mentioned the lawyer, Jeffrey Neil Younger, who incessantly represents unions within the state. “It’s a traditional response — staff resolve to arrange and the employer says it’s closing the shop.”
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The labor board will examine the cost and situation a proper criticism if it finds benefit within the accusation, at which level the case would go earlier than an administrative legislation decide. The 2 sides might attain a settlement beforehand.
A handful of staff on the retailer walked off the job in mid-June to protest what they mentioned had been unsafe situations that stemmed from understaffing and inadequate coaching.
“Not being correctly skilled to arrange meals has numerous dangers to each the preparer and the individuals consuming the meals,” mentioned Brandi McNease, a employee concerned within the walkout and the union marketing campaign. “You are concerned about knife expertise, utilizing tools 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 keeping 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 typically for fewer hours per week than they beforehand labored.
On June 22, staff filed a petition to carry a union election. The labor board requires no less than 30 p.c of staff to point their assist earlier than it would order one.
The listening to scheduled for Tuesday was meant to contemplate arguments from the 2 sides in regards to 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 pressure.
Mr. Younger, the lawyer representing the employees, mentioned the closing might 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 set up, you is perhaps out of job,” Mr. Younger mentioned.
Ms. Schalow, the Chipotle official, mentioned in her assertion that closing the shop “has nothing to do with union exercise.” The corporate mentioned 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. Most of the closings seem to have come within the first half of final yr.
Chipotle has provided the Augusta staff 4 weeks of severance pay primarily based 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 provided to position the employees at different areas in Maine, the closest of which is roughly an hour away, in keeping with the corporate.
Ms. McNease mentioned she and her co-workers deliberate to battle to have the shop reopened. “Nobody is bailing now,” she mentioned.
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 mentioned it was closing 16 additional stores due to security considerations like crime, which it mentioned have been mirrored in incident reviews over the previous yr. The union representing the newly unionized Starbucks staff has filed expenses of unfair labor practices, accusing the corporate of closing the shops to undermine organizing exercise or keep away from bargaining with unionized staff.
