Tag Archives: unions

The latest union shop on Broadway? Phoenix Comics workers organize for retail representation

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Broadway still might be a union street. After last spring’s celebration of ten successful years at 113 Broadway E, Phoenix Comics staff are kicking off the next ten having successfully formed a union represented by UFCW 3000.

Elise Oziel, one of Phoenix’s six staff members, told CHS the team began discussing the formation of a union last summer.

“We already like working here and we wanted it to stay affordable for us to work here,” Oziel said. “I think that even when you have a really small staff, the desire to join the union shows that your staff are invested in the business, because if we weren’t invested and we wanted to make more money, we would go somewhere else.”

Phoenix staff are hoping the union’s ability to negotiate contracts will lead to annual raises and benefits like paid time off, which they currently do not receive, Oziel said, adding that “future staff members would already be set up for success.”

The plans for representation come as the labor efforts at smaller Capitol Hill businesses have ebbed and flowed on the tides of larger union fights at chains like Starbucks. Not all labor efforts along Broadwa have come over coffee. CHS reported here in 2022 on the unionization efforts around workers at Broadway’s location of the Crossroads thriftstore chain. Meanwhile, one symbol of the effort to grow unionization at small businesses here changed direction last year. CHS reported here on the decision to decertify their union by workers at Broadway’s Glo’s Diner late last year.

For the ownership at Phoenix, the effort has been an education.

Nick Nazar, owner of Phoenix Comics, told CHS the staff gathered a meeting to talk with ownership in December where they provided Nazar with a letter expressing the desire to form a union.

“I was pretty shocked,” Nazar said. “I’ve heard about unions but I myself in the 20 years I’ve been working in retail, on either side of the management or rank-and-file employee, had never dealt with the process, so I had no experience. I was really kind of stunned. I was both flattered and a little scared.” Continue reading →

Worker who tried to organize Glo’s, owner talk about decertification vote, what’s next for Capitol Hill diner — UPDATE

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CHS reported last week on the vote by workers at Glo’s Diner to decertify its union representation and go it alone with management over issues of scheduling, wages, and workplace safety.

“We got union busted plain and simple,” longtime Glo’s employee, cook, and labor organizer Sean Case told CHS in an interview over the weekend following our first report on the vote.

Case said he has given his two-week notice over the decision.

CHS spoke to workers part of the 12 to 11 vote to end the representation who said, for them, their vote against certification was not an argument against the value of unions and worker rights but a specific decision based on their experiences working at Glo’s and frustration with the priorities of Restaurant Workers United.

In a statement, Glo’s owners Julie Reisman and Steve Frias said the change will help the business stabilize after a challenging start.

Workers part of organizing the union as the diner reopened this summer in its new location above Capitol Hill Station were not available to discuss the decertification vote with one telling CHS they were too shocked about the outcome to immediately comment. Representatives for tiny Restaurant Workers United — active in only a few workplaces across the country — also opted not to comment.

CHS first spoke with Case in April as it was announced that Glo’s management would voluntarily recognize the union amid organization efforts leading up to the diner’s planned reopening after its move to Broadway. “There are ideas about how our workplace can improve. We believed we were the people to decide that,” Case said at the time. Continue reading →

Workers vote to remove union at Capitol Hill’s Glo’s Diner

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A worker at the May opening of Glo’s above Capitol Hill Station

Workers at Capitol Hill’s Glo’s Diner say they have voted to end representation by Restaurant Workers United, opting to go it alone when it comes to working with management over issues of scheduling, wages, and workplace safety.

Workers who were part of organizing the union as the diner reopened this summer in its new location above Capitol Hill Station have not been available to discuss the decertification vote with one telling CHS they were too shocked about the outcome to immediately comment.

Representatives for the tiny Restaurant Workers United which has been active in only a few workplaces across the country also have opted not to comment at this time.

UPDATE 11/6/2023: CHS spoke with Sean Case, a Glo’s employee who worked to organize the union and opposed the decertification, here: Worker who tried to organize Glo’s, owner talk about decertification vote, what’s next for Capitol Hill diner

In a statement, Glo’s owners Julie Reisman and Steve Frias who voluntarily recognized the union this summer as they prepared for opening in the new location, said the change will help the business stabilize after a challenging start.

“Now that the staff is settled on this matter, we can turn our attention more fully toward what we do best, which is preparing and serving our food to our loyal guests and the greater community,” they write in a statement sent in response to a CHS inquiry. “We look forward to stabilizing our operations in our new space so we can re-engage with our local community and establish the best way to commence a new look community service program.”

The full statement from Glo’s ownership — signed Moving forward — is below.

Azriel Vovin, who tells CHS he worked with others among Glo’s two dozen or so employees to file the decertification petition, said the result of this week’s vote is not an argument against the value of unions and worker rights. Continue reading →

With a new contract for Seattle Police brass on the table, Seattle City Council holding public hearing on police accountability

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What July 25th, 2020 looked like on Capitol Hill

The Seattle City Council will hold a public hearing this week that officials hope will shape efforts to improve accountability from the captains and lieutenants who lead the Seattle Police Department.

Tuesday night’s hearing of the council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee is a key opportunity for community priorities to be heard before negotiations begin on a new contract with the Seattle Police Management Association, the union with fewer than 100 members representing SPD’s leadership positions. The committee’s chair Lisa Herbold says a new contract with the management union could bring critical changes to how SPD’s accountability systems work and that Tuesday’s hearing is a crucial public element in restarting the negotiation process that will move behind closed doors.

“It’s the point in time for the public to testify about what should be included in a new contract,” Herbold said. “Once negotiations begin, they are confidential and closed to the public until negotiations conclude.” Continue reading →

Glo’s Diner — now with organized workers in its new home above Capitol Hill Station — ready to open in May

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The Glo’s crew and what we presume is a “negotiating table” — now organized (Image: Restaurant Workers United)

Opening… soon

When it opens in May in its spacious new home above Capitol Hill Station on the edge of the AIDS Memorial Pathway plaza, Glo’s will be a new place. There will be loads more room for customers and espresso and breakfast cocktail service.

And its workers will be unionized, organized together to improve pay, benefits, and working conditions.

“There are ideas about how our workplace can improve,” cook and organizer Sean Case tells CHS. “We believed we were the people to decide that.”

Restaurant Workers United, a worker-led union for restaurant, bar, and cafe workers, announced this week that Glo’s ownership voluntarily recognized the unionization effort, “forming the first independent restaurant union in Seattle in several decades.”

Case said employees at the now 37-year-old diner value and respect Glo’s and that the conventional wisdom pitting ownership vs. workers needs to wither away.

“We all love Glo’s — but anyone knows the industry has serious problems. People are underpaid, the work is on hard on the body, tons of exploitation.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill labor notes: ‘Teach-out’ at Seattle Central calls for better faculty wages and better experience for students, Mixologists walk out at Starbucks Roastery

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AFT Seattle Local 1789 says faculty at Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College are walking out Tuesday as part of a “day of action” calling for higher wages, better support for part-time instructors, and more counseling and support for students as enrollment trends continue to plunge for community colleges.

The faculty union says the Broadway campus “teach-out” will take place from 10 AM to noon. Continue reading →

A ‘refusal-to-bargain case’ — Starbucks loses first round in labor fight with Capitol Hill roastery’s unionized workers

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(Image: CHS)

Starbucks is violating labor law and must negotiate with union workers at its massive 15,000-square-foot Capitol Hill roastery despite the company’s objections to how the unionization vote was conducted, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled.

“We find that the Respondent’s conduct constitutes an unlawful failure and refusal to recognize and bargain with the Union,” the board ruling (PDF) issued this week reads.

The ruling comes as the coffee giant announced it will close its cafe at Broadway and Denny, the last stand-alone store the company has in the Capitol Hill neighborhood besides the huge Starbucks Roastery and the first shop in its home city to unionize.

In April, workers at the popular Melrose Ave roastery voted to join the Starbucks Workers United effort and unionize the store, at the time, the second location in the company’s home city to organize. Continue reading →

Get ready for the first day of school: Tentative agreement reached on three-year deal in Seattle teachers strike — UPDATE: Wednesday!

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The first day of school is back in the plans again for Seattle families with a tentative agreement in the teacher strike on a three-year deal.

Details of the contract have not been released but an email from Jennifer Matter, president of the Seattle Education Association, to union members Monday night said the tentative agreement centered on a three-year deal with wins on special education and salaries.

Union membership must still vote to approve the deal. Tuesday marks the fifth day of missed classes due to the strike.

Seattle Public Schools has not yet announced a date for the first day of classes but said there would be more information Tuesday afternoon.

UPDATE: Classes will begin Wednesday morning. More information on making up the lost days will be announced.

Continue reading →

May Day 2022 in Seattle: Workers’ rights, signs and marches, ‘zero arrests’

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With most pandemic era restrictions lifted and turnout buoyed by recent labor victories in the city, hundreds marched from the Central District Sunday to mark May Day 2022 in Seattle.

The annual event organized by civil rights group El Comite grew closer to past proportions after COVID-19 concerns reduced attendance at the 2021 rally and march for workers rights.

2021 also saw arrests during May Day protests away from the workers march including on Capitol Hill where a “black bloc” group marched on Broadway and became embroiled with law enforcement after a large contingent of police responded and moved on the crowd outside the E Olive Way Starbucks following reports of property damage. Continue reading →

With a rally and march on Capitol Hill, Starbucks unionization effort grows to target a second Seattle corporate giant — Amazon

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With reporting by Megan Matti, UW News Lab/Special to CHS

The national effort to unionize Starbucks rooted here in Kshama Sawant’s District 3 and on Capitol Hill poured into the neighborhood’s Cal Anderson Park and onto Broadway Saturday. Meanwhile, the Socialist Alternative leader has shifted fully from recent thrusts around rent control and affordability in the city after her defeat of a recall effort and is making a new full court press against two of the nation’s largest employers that just happen to be headquartered in her home city.

Saturday, a crowd of people carrying red picket signs and banners and wearing shirts proclaiming their status as Starbucks workers gathered. Organizers said the rally was held to celebrate the first Seattle Starbucks to successfully unionize as well as a growing national labor movement.

“We are in the midst of a wave of unionization across the country,” said Bia Lacombe, a community organizer with District 3 representative Sawant’s office, as the rally began.

Over the weekend, Sawant announced she is donating $20,000 to support labor organizing efforts at another Seattle corporate giant — Amazon. Her office says the councilmember and organizers jetted to New York following Saturday’s Cal Anderson rally to support Amazon labor organizing efforts there.

In Seattle, the unionization of the Capitol Hill Starbucks Reserve Roastery was announced on Thursday. Sydney Durkin, a shift manager and one of the key organizers for the unionization of the first Capitol Hill location, located at Broadway and Denny, had high hopes going into Saturday’s rally.

“The rally is really to continue to build momentum and boost morale,” Durkin said, “to continue to increase visibility and increase pressure on Starbucks itself by just saying, ‘Hey, we’re out in the streets. We’re really passionate about this, we have a lot of people behind us, and we see what’s going on and we’re involved and we are going to hold you accountable.’” Continue reading →