Chipotle United (w/ Brandi McNease)

On June 22 of this year, workers at a Chipotle location in Augusta, Maine, made history by becoming the first store in the US to file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. Then, on Tuesday, July 19, Chipotle announced that it would be permanently closing the Augusta location. While spokespeople for the fast-casual dining giant deny that the closure is related to union organizing activity, workers and their supporters say the drastic move is a clear act of retaliation and "union busting 101." The Chipotle store closure coincides with a broader, aggressive escalation of anti-union actions taken by other employers who have also recently closed stores and production plants where workers were organizing, including multiple Starbucks locations across the US, Heine Brothers' Coffee in Kentucky, Amy's Kitchen in California, and G&D Integrated, LLC, in Illinois. "By closing the Augusta store," Jeffrey Neil Young, a lawyer representing the Chipotle workers, told The New York Times, "it's signaling to Chipotle workers elsewhere who are involved in or contemplating nascent organizational drives that if you organize, you might be out of job." But workers are refusing to be bullied and silenced by the company, and they are fighting back. In this extended mini-cast, we talk with Brandi McNease, a worker-organizer at the Augusta Chipotle location and a founding member of Chipotle United.

Additional links/info below...

• PETITION: Tell Chipotle CEO to Re-Open Augusta!
• Chipotle United website and Twitter page
• Noam Scheiber, The New York Times, "Chipotle Closes a Maine Store, and Workers Say It's Because of a Union Drive"
• Mike Pomranz, Food & Wine, "Chipotle Closes Store That Voted to Form Chain's First Union, Citing Staffing Issues"
• Noam Scheiber, The New York Times, "Chipotle Is Sued by New York City Over Scheduling Practices"
• Alex Press, Jacobin, "Chipotle Is a Nightmare Employer"
• Working People, "Starbucks Sinks to a New Low (w/ Nadia Vitek)"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Starbucks and Other Companies Escalate War on Unions with Store Closures"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "'They F*cked Us': Illinois Ironworkers Laid Off after Unionizing"
• Nico Madrigal-Yankowski, SFGate, "Bay Area Frozen Foods Giant Amy's Closing Production Plant after One Year"

Permanent links below...

• Working People Patreon page
• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song