Employees of another craft brewery are attempting to unionize.
The kitchen and hospitality staff of Surly Brewing Company’s Beer Hall and Pizza Upstairs restaurant in Minneapolis notified management Monday that they plan to unionize, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
According to the report, employees say they have worked without health benefits during the pandemic and their pay has declined despite the company adding a 15% service charge to bills in an effort to help workers.
“Surly Brewing Company is not immune to the inequalities and injustices that afflict the service industry, many of which the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated,” the employees wrote in a press release posted to the Unite Surly Workers Instagram page.
In the release, the employees said they voiced concerns over safety before Surly reopened its consumer-facing spaces in June, including a counter-service model.
“Despite our efforts, changes were only made after Mayor [Jacob] Frey announced an emergency regulation forbidding guests from ordering at bar areas,” the workers continued. “Additionally, we were misled regarding the distribution of a new service charge, as well as the availability of benefits to returning employees.”
The employees said their demands include “open conversations and mutual transparency.”
“As dedicated employees, we deserve a say in changes that affect our compensation, health insurance and employment,” they continued. “Unite Surly Workers is inviting leadership to recognize our unionization effort in order to create a more equitable and collaborative workplace. Since its inception, Surly has been a leader in the beer industry. Today, we are asking them to pioneer the fight for workers’ rights.”
Surly released a statement on social media saying: “Today, some of Surly’s hospitality employees notified management of their intent to unionize. We’re working on determining the next steps in the process.”
— surlybrewing (@surlybrewing) August 31, 2020
The workers responded to Surly’s public statement with a reply from their Twitter page, “Unite Surly Workers.”
“A *vast majority of Surly’s hospitality employees* and an easy next step would be to voluntarily recognize our union! #SurlySolidarity”
The union contract would cover as many as 110 service industry workers, although production-side workers would not be eligible to join the union, which would be a part of Unite Here Local 17, which represents more than 6,000 hotel, restaurant, hospitality, sports complex, convention center and airport workers in Minnesota, Saint Paul and the surrounding suburbs.
Isabelle Rolfes of Unite Surly Workers told Brewbound that if Surly doesn’t recognize the union, then the group will begin the process of filing for a union election.
Rolfes, who has worked as a server and host at Surly for two years, added that there are no plans at the moment for a walk out or a boycott.
“In the meantime, we have begun preparing for any further union-busting action from management,” Rolfes wrote. “We have spent months preparing for these next few weeks and we are very excited to share our stories with everyone!”
According to Rolfes, when Surly workers asked to speak with management to inform them of their intent to unionize, they were made to wait for an hour before meeting with them.
“They were then asked to voluntarily recognize our union, to which the owner Omar Ansari declined. Our union representative informed them of our rights and presented them with a card that listed all of the ways in which management is legally not allowed to engage with us,” Rolfes wrote. “They refused the card and said ‘No, I’m good.’ This was an immediate union-busting action.”
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) praised the effort on Twitter.
“Great news out of Surly Brewing Co., where the workers have voted to unionize!,” she wrote. “Every worker needs the benefits and protections that come from a bargaining unit. All our love and solidarity to @UNITEHERE17 & the workers at Surly for organizing so … Furiously.”
Unite Here Local 17 is also encouraging the public to email Ansari and director of hospitality Dan Dinovis and ask him to recognize the union.
Surly’s service staff previously filed a class-action lawsuit against the brewery for allegedly requiring tip-pooling, which eventually was settled by the company in 2018 for $2.5 million.
Surly is also the latest example of employees at a craft brewery attempting to unionize.
A group of employees at Philadelphia-based Dock Street Brewery sought to unionize earlier this summer after being asked to reapply for the jobs that they were laid off from at the onset of the pandemic. The group partnered with Philly Workers for Dignity, an independent local organization of “workers coming together for good jobs, the right to organize and a fighting labor movement,” according to its website.
Employees picketed across the street from the brewery’s Dock Street West location for several days. Dock Street management ended up adjusting their pay structure in line with the organizing employees’ requests, moving from $2.83 per hour plus tips to an hourly rate of $15-$17 per hour, paid for by a service fee. Tipping and table service were eliminated. Employees also received the option to join the company healthcare plan, with Dock Street covering part of the cost. The reimagining of the Dock Street West location, however, led to fewer jobs.
Last December, employees at San Francisco-based Anchor Brewing ratified a three-year contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).
Anchor’s pact with employees included “substantial compensation increases” for union members over the next three years, with an average wage increase of 8%.
Anchor, which was acquired for $85 million by Japan’s Sapporo Holdings Limited in mid-2017, will also pay 85% of employees’ health insurance premiums and 50% of their dependents’ premiums. Anchor will also make additional contributions to employees’ 401(K) plans based on the brewery’s production, which has declined over the last five years.