Chipotle closes union store

storewanderer
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Chipotle closes union store

Post by storewanderer »

It had closed to customers in June. Now closing entirely. Supposedly due to understaffing.

These unions going after the low profit high turnover fast food business are misguided. I guess the big mass retail chains and discount store chains are no longer possible to organize so now they resort to these tiny businesses.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/business ... index.html
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Re: Chipotle closes union store

Post by Bagels »

Tiny businesses? Chipotle restaurants are entirely corporate owned…
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Re: Chipotle closes union store

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: July 20th, 2022, 8:07 am Tiny businesses? Chipotle restaurants are entirely corporate owned…
These Chilotle and Starbucks the union is so desperate to unionize have few employees and many aren't even open 12 hours per day. You aren't going to make much in dues, the constant turnover will make the shop steward position very difficult to manage, and the whole thing doesn't make sense. Almost feels like the union is trying to do itself in because having a union present in tiny workplaces is not profitable to the union or efficient. Unions generally work better in large workplaces where they can represent hundreds of employees.

I'm referring to the 10 or 15 employees who work in a Chipotle or Starbucks as tiny. Why is the union going after these? Is it all they can get?

Even a McDonald's which often has 30 or 40 employees and operates at least 16 hours per day at minimum would be a much bigger catch.
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Re: Chipotle closes union store

Post by mjhale »

storewanderer wrote: July 20th, 2022, 12:32 pm
I'm referring to the 10 or 15 employees who work in a Chipotle or Starbucks as tiny. Why is the union going after these? Is it all they can get?

Even a McDonald's which often has 30 or 40 employees and operates at least 16 hours per day at minimum would be a much bigger catch.
Walmart and Target have raised hourly rates close to or over the magic $15/hour rate that everyone clamoring for. The pay raises came not entirely from the union protests and other actions. The market being so tight for labor is, in my opinion, a bigger driver of the increase in salaries. In a sense the union got what it wanted without having to unionize the stores. Now, at stores like Walmart and Target the union could go after working conditions and lack of what they would call adequate benefits for the workers. However, outside of the people that will be always have the "activist" sort of mind I'm not sure how many people at the average Walmart or Target care at this point with the increases in salary. It doesn't hurt too that there are so many open positions that if someone wants to make a move, especially in the retail and service sectors, it isn't hard to find something more to your liking.

As for Chipotle and Starbucks, I have to wonder if there is more of an activist culture among their employees. Both companies seem to put out there this message of being progressive, trendy and with the current culture. Not trying to paint a broad brush, however, it is my feeling that these business have younger employees who are more in tune with the message that unions are spreading now. Also, a smaller shop might not be efficient in terms of dues collection. On the other side of things, it is much more efficient to spread the message among small groups of people who are receptive to said message. If the unions can gather small groups of stores and organize them, those stores can spread the message to other nearby stores saying look what we accomplished. That keeps the message going and eventually you get enough scale that the message flows pretty freely among the organization.
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Re: Chipotle closes union store

Post by veteran+ »

Maybe employees are just sick of their bosses and companies treating them so badly.

Maybe folks just want a better quality of work/life balance (in small shops and large).

Progressive or not..........................people have quality of life needs.

;) 8-)
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Re: Chipotle closes union store

Post by Alpha8472 »

If Starbucks and Chipotle were unionized would it improve things? Right now there is so much turnover at coffee shops. You train a person and it could take weeks. Then they quit for a higher paying job with better benefits. The store then has to pay money to recruit and train a new employee.

If the shops are unionized, then maybe employees would stay longer and actually make a career out of it. In other countries such as Italy, the job of a barista is a highly respected profession. People work for years as baristas and are paid quite well.

Starbucks could consolidate their stores. Let there be fewer stores, but have busier stores that do more volume. Then maybe these stores will have enough employees to support a union. Some of those drive thru Starbucks do tons of business and need many employees.

There are Rite Aid stores, some CVS, and some Walgreens that are unionized. These have been around for years. Some of them have few employees.
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Re: Chipotle closes union store

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: July 21st, 2022, 2:17 pm Maybe employees are just sick of their bosses and companies treating them so badly.

Maybe folks just want a better quality of work/life balance (in small shops and large).

Progressive or not..........................people have quality of life needs.

;) 8-)
If employees don't like how they are being treated, they need to leave and work elsewhere. We used to hear in the 90's and 00's that Starbucks especially and to a lesser degree Chipotle were the best fast food places to work at. They offered benefits, tuition reimbursement, etc. when other chains did not (especially some franchisees...).

A union will not save a toxic work environment. Employees refusing to work there, will though...
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Re: Chipotle closes union store

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: July 21st, 2022, 4:26 pm If Starbucks and Chipotle were unionized would it improve things? Right now there is so much turnover at coffee shops. You train a person and it could take weeks. Then they quit for a higher paying job with better benefits. The store then has to pay money to recruit and train a new employee.

If the shops are unionized, then maybe employees would stay longer and actually make a career out of it. In other countries such as Italy, the job of a barista is a highly respected profession. People work for years as baristas and are paid quite well.

Starbucks could consolidate their stores. Let there be fewer stores, but have busier stores that do more volume. Then maybe these stores will have enough employees to support a union. Some of those drive thru Starbucks do tons of business and need many employees.

There are Rite Aid stores, some CVS, and some Walgreens that are unionized. These have been around for years. Some of them have few employees.
I don't think anything will improve if they unionize. It will just add another layer and element of problems, and expenses. The turnover is everywhere- every sector- service, professional, government....

These unionized retail stores are short of help and employees are very unhappy in those places as well lately. The union does nothing to somehow magically transform the work environment into something great.

Starbucks needs to consolidate into higher volume stores, absolutely.

The average drugstore at the time they unionized the drugstores in the 80's and 90's had many more employees, used more labor hours, and paid higher average wages than these fast food places pay. Plus with the drugstores they have blocks of stores unionized. All of the CA Rite Aids are unionized. Many of the CA CVS that used to be Sav-On are unionized. I don't think many Walgreens are unionized (is it the San Francisco ones?). Going and unionizing a random Starbucks in WA and a random Starbucks in MI and another random Starbucks in FL isn't going to really accomplish much of anything. Even if the union did a drive and said we are going to push and focus and get every store in, say, Seattle, to unionize, it would be a lot more meaningful than the way they are approaching this.
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Re: Chipotle closes union store

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote: July 21st, 2022, 10:21 pm
veteran+ wrote: July 21st, 2022, 2:17 pm Maybe employees are just sick of their bosses and companies treating them so badly.

Maybe folks just want a better quality of work/life balance (in small shops and large).

Progressive or not..........................people have quality of life needs.

;) 8-)
If employees don't like how they are being treated, they need to leave and work elsewhere. We used to hear in the 90's and 00's that Starbucks especially and to a lesser degree Chipotle were the best fast food places to work at. They offered benefits, tuition reimbursement, etc. when other chains did not (especially some franchisees...).

A union will not save a toxic work environment. Employees refusing to work there, will though...
I totally disagree.

The onus of a positive working environment is on management and NOT on the employee. Problems come from the top and trickle down to the bottom. Modern Unions can help with a toxic environment. Employees NEED advocates because HR/ER departments are categorically NOT an advocate for an employee. Most State Labor Commissioners are toothless.

Since competition in many business categories have diminsihed through the years it is not always easy for employees to just quit (given their skill sets and experience).

Until Business America embraces the idea that the MOST important asset they have is their employees nothing will change.
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Re: Chipotle closes union store

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: July 22nd, 2022, 8:37 am
storewanderer wrote: July 21st, 2022, 10:21 pm
veteran+ wrote: July 21st, 2022, 2:17 pm Maybe employees are just sick of their bosses and companies treating them so badly.

Maybe folks just want a better quality of work/life balance (in small shops and large).

Progressive or not..........................people have quality of life needs.

;) 8-)
If employees don't like how they are being treated, they need to leave and work elsewhere. We used to hear in the 90's and 00's that Starbucks especially and to a lesser degree Chipotle were the best fast food places to work at. They offered benefits, tuition reimbursement, etc. when other chains did not (especially some franchisees...).

A union will not save a toxic work environment. Employees refusing to work there, will though...
I totally disagree.

The onus of a positive working environment is on management and NOT on the employee. Problems come from the top and trickle down to the bottom. Modern Unions can help with a toxic environment. Employees NEED advocates because HR/ER departments are categorically NOT an advocate for an employee. Most State Labor Commissioners are toothless.

Since competition in many business categories have diminsihed through the years it is not always easy for employees to just quit (given their skill sets and experience).

Until Business America embraces the idea that the MOST important asset they have is their employees nothing will change.
I don't know... I know of a lot of union shops where the employees are unhappy, management is terrible, corporate is completely out of touch, and operations are poor. It all adds up to high turnover.

And I'm not just talking retail here. I'm also talking gaming, education, government......... the unions don't save a toxic work environment. I am not saying the work environment would be better without the union and it could likely be worse but talking to people working in some of these places I'm not sure how it could be much worse.
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