Mass firings, wage cuts and open hostility: workers are burnt out but still unionizing [View all]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/mass-firings-wage-cuts-and-open-hostility-workers-are-burnt-out-but-still-unionizing/ar-AA11LzyS

By Michael Sainato

Brandi McNease worked at a Chipotle in Augusta, Maine, where she and her co-workers had filed a union election in June 2022, the first location at the fast food retail chain to do so.

Chipotle closed the store permanently on 19 July, right before a hearing with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on the union election, leaving workers saying they were blacklisted from being hired at other locations in the area. Chipotle claimed the store was shut down due to staffing problems. Workers have filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB over the store closure.

“Essentially, they waited until the morning, then when they realized that we weren’t going to quit, they flipped the checkerboard,” said McNease.

Such events have become commonplace in the US amid a widespread unionization drive that has taken on some of the biggest names in corporate America from Starbucks to Trader Joe’s, and Amazon to Chipotle. As the drive has moved forward – amid signs of increased public support for unions – corporations have strongly opposed unionization and attempted to dissuade efforts by hiring expensive law firms and consultants while deploying a suite of other hardball tactics, from firings to branch closings.

FULL story at link above.