The High-Stakes Battle to Organize Heats Up at Three of D.C.’s Hottest Restaurants | Eater DC
"Ahead of an NLRB election held February 21 (workers voted 51–42 to unionize), staff describe an acrimonious campaign that they say involved nighttime house visits, repeated outside confrontations, and workplace ambushes. One server warned, “It will set a precedent in the city if this passes — all restaurants have their eyes on us,” and added, “When the union came into our restaurant it felt like a hostile takeover,” saying he believes the union “planted ‘salt’ workers in almost every department — from servers to back of house.” A bartender who organized opposition described being “ambushed” at an Adams Morgan café, being refused reading materials, and seeing union reps “blocking” doors during peak service; she called the tactics “extremely predatory” and “just really jarring.” A longtime server in favor of organizing said he’s voting yes to “further protect my job security, my wages, and my right to respect and dignity,” and a Spanish-speaking prep cook said, via translator, “I never really felt heard without a proper translator and felt ignored.” A bartender who attended Bible study detailed a meeting that included a union representative and said, “I felt very violated — someone using my faith to rope me into a union meeting.” Union leadership counters that it has not received “a single complaint” about harassing employees here and that “100 percent of worker meetings at St. Anselm to sign union cards were scheduled meetings or invitations to people’s houses,” while the operator asserts the vote was tainted by the union’s “coercive tactics” of “intimidation and promising immigration assistance in exchange for voting yes … unfairly and inappropriately influenced” the process. Local 25 also claims an 80 percent card-signing showing at this location; opponents and management plan to file objections with the NLRB." - Tierney Plumb
