(Image: Crossroads Trading)
A growing tide of service industry unionization efforts is well represented across Capitol Hill and the Central District with the latest new push coming at a Broadway recycle, resale, vintage, and consignment fashion shop.
The United Food & Commercial Workers Local No. 21 has petitioned the National Labor Board on behalf of 16 employees at the Broadway Crossroads Trading store.
The February 1st filing marks the latest labor organization in Seattle and on Broadway where CHS reported last week on efforts by workers at the Broadway and Denny Starbucks shop to join unionizations efforts at locations of the coffee giant across the county.
“It’s really about everyone’s fundamental right to have representation at work. It’s bigger than just our store or just Starbucks. It’s really about what we can do for not just the industry but workers everywhere when we all stand together and demand fairness,” Starbucks worker Rachel Ybarra told CHS.
Around Capitol Hill, efforts have also included companies much smaller than Starbucks. In 2020, CHS reported on the unionization of workers at Capitol Hill’s Elliott Bay Book Company. In 2021, workers at Central District pot shop Ponder became the latest to organize in a spreading movement to unionize the state’s cannabis industry.
District 3 representative for the Capitol Hill and the Central District Kshama Sawant has backed the Starbucks workers and pledged her support for service industry unionization efforts. Last week, she organized a rally in Cal Anderson to support the Broadway at Denny crew.
Sawant’s office and the Socialist Alternative organization she leads are also ramping up efforts to support the Broadway Starbucks coffee workers, donating money raised in her successful defense against the December recall effort to the unionization cause.
“I donated $10,000 from my solidarity fund to Starbucks workers courageously unionizing, despite union busting by billionaire bosses,” Sawant said. “I take home the average worker’s wage. The rest of my six-figure City Council salary after taxes goes into this solidarity fund.”
The Broadway union pushes comes following Seattle’s push to raise the minimum wage and amid growing efforts to organize labor at some of the largest companies in the nation that experts say align with the pandemic, record job openings, and rising expectations for better pay and working conditions. Smaller entities ranging from Crossroads to Elliott Bay Books are also part of the changing mood around labor.
The 31-year-old Crossroads chain includes nearly 40 stores across the country including two in Seattle. We’ve asked the company for more information on its response to the Broadway unionization effort and will update when we hear back.
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Good!! Glad to hear it. More unions the better.
In spite of the media hype, union membership is the lowest it’s ever been in this country. This is how we begin. Build from the bottom up and educate. We have the power to be powerful again and address how labor has changed over the past decades.
The people who work at the Broadway Crossroads have been knowledgable and kind every time I’ve gone in to buy or sell. If you work there and see this, thank you for being a bright spot in the neighborhood. Good luck with the unionization!