STORIES
Bully employers and union-busting consultants make organizing a single NLRB election tough enough.
Why should they have to go through it twice?
Workers started organizing a union due to pay and safety issues, made even more clear after I watched a 600-pound pallet fall and break a co-worker’s back and injure two others.
After 70% of workers signed cards, management hired Kulture to interrogate workers and defeat the union. Kulture intimidated workers into captive audience meetings, where they made vague allegations a union would decrease wages and even force the facility to close. They showed slides with pro-union worker names, photos and personal info like mine, telling their co-workers not to trust us. Kulture/management retaliated against union supporters, isolating and yelling at us in small meetings, then they eliminated some of our positions to cut our pay.
Two and a half months of intimidation led to losing our first election despite having 2/3rd+ support. A second election puts workers in the position of being bullied all over again, something few of us were anxious to do.
Larson Ross, Hello Fresh
Workers were forced into group anti-union meetings with district managers, escalating to 2 corporate executives-to-1 worker meetings, subtly or overtly threatening our livelihoods, including slashed hours, lost benefits and firings.
Eventually, I was fired for union activities the day after our first (and successful strike) and I wasn’t the only one – but a judge ordered me reinstated with back pay because of Starbucks’ illegal behavior of surveillance, coercion and firings. I had to find another job during this time, so I didn’t go back to Starbucks.
Corporations have the upper hand; a second election puts workers at risk of termination, harassment and intimidation.