Tuesday, April 12, 2022

THE CRISIS OF THE PETTY BOURGEOISIE

Small landlords who became homeless during pandemic blame 'broken' system

Franchesca Ranger spent 1.5 years 'living out of a suitcase' because former tenant refused to leave

Priscilla Ki Sun Hwang · CBC News · 
Landlord Franchesca Ranger stands in front of her Ottawa townhome after being homeless for 18 months. She says the former tenant refused to leave and pay rent, forcing her to live out of her suitcase during the pandemic. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

Some landlords in Ontario are becoming homeless — a situation legal experts say they've never seen happen before the COVID-19 pandemic. They blame a "broken" tribunal system with significant delays to obtain eviction orders.

Franchesca Ranger, a small business owner in Ottawa, found herself homeless during the pandemic after selling her marital home due to a divorce. She decided to move into her rental unit, a townhouse in Barrhaven, and gave her tenant a 75-day termination notice with a move-out date of Aug. 31, 2020.

She said her tenant of four years refused to leave, stopped paying rent, and she was left to pay thousands a month in mortgage, property taxes, bills, and storage for her belongings — all while running a small restaurant that was hit hard by lockdowns and pandemic restrictions.

"All I could think about was everything I've worked for, and everything I've saved for, my future just being torn away," said Ranger, who was "living out of a suitcase" from September 2020 until this year.

"I felt so let down and so violated."

She was finally able to move back into her home this February, after alternating stays with friends and family every few days.

"My life wasn't my own," she said.

Ranger was finally able to move back into her home this February, after alternating stays with friends and family every few days. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

Small landlords — those who typically own just one or two rental units — can become homeless when a tenant refuses to leave a space the landlord needs for their own accommodations.

CBC spoke to two other landlords in Ontario who were homeless, or are at risk of homelessness, due to delays in getting a hearing and eviction order from Ontario's Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) — the body that makes decisions when disputes arise between landlords and tenants.

Experts and organizations who work with landlords said they've seen dozens become homeless during the pandemic, often accessing homeless shelters, living in vehicles, couch-surfing and even forfeiting their properties to banks due to bankruptcy — all as they wait for the LTB to hear their case and make a final decision.

During the pandemic, the province paused evictions and hearings for months at a time, leaving some landlords with nowhere else to go until they're legally able to evict their tenant.

"We're trying to navigate our clients through a system that has become so broken," said paralegal Kathleen Lovett.

WATCH | A landlord describes how she became homeless: 
Franchesca Ranger found herself homeless when she was unable to move into a townhouse she owned after her primary residence was sold during a divorce. She says the tenants refused to leave — and the process to evict them took 18 months. 1:43

The entire process from filing an application to getting a decision should take one to three months, according to LTB's own service standards from before the pandemic.

After serving her tenant the N12 notice — a form required under Ontario's Residential and Tenancies Act if a landlord, an immediate family member, or a purchaser intends to move into a rental unit — Ranger had to wait eight months for a hearing.

Three days before the hearing, the tenant asked for the hearing to be conducted in French, so she had to wait four more months for a second hearing. It took three months after that for an eviction decision, and about another three for the sheriff's office to come and enforce the eviction.

"I find it inconceivable that tax dollars pay for a government body that has zero accountability, that thinks it's OK for someone to own a home and be homeless," said Ranger. She wrote letters to several MPPs, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and the attorney general, with no response offering help.

"How is it possible that someone can rent a place, stop paying rent, and live in it for 18 months? … It doesn't make sense."

Ranger says her former tenant left her home with garbage and debris laying around. She says they even left a stack of canned goods in one of the washrooms, and a tub full of peanut butter jars. The tenant did not respond to CBC's request to comment on this. (Submitted by Franchesca Ranger)

Ranger's former tenant still owes her more than $24,000 in rent arrears and compensation, according to the LTB.

That tenant did not respond to CBC's request for an interview or comment. However, in the eviction document, he testified he refused to pay rent since June 2020 because "he took the N12 to mean he no longer was required to pay."

The tenant stated his wife was disabled and on ODSP and she'd have medical difficulties if evicted because her medical professionals "were all in the vicinity of the rental unit." He said the family would be homeless if evicted and he requested Ranger pay him to leave sooner and find another rental unit.

Ranger said the tenant left her place in shambles, with jars of peanut butter piled in her bathtub and garbage strewn across her home and lawn.

"My house was literally held for ransom," said Ranger. "I guarantee you I will never rent again."

This is what Ranger's backyard looks like after her former tenant of several years was evicted. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

"During the wait time, the landlord is going crazy," said Boubacar Bah, chair of Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario (SOLO), a non-profit that provides resources and advocates for working-class landlords.

Bah said he knows at least 50 landlords involved in his group who became homeless. He said the toll on their mental health has been "huge."

This nightmare [keeps] going … I don't know when it's going to end.- Pearl Karimalis, paralegal

"The big landlord doesn't have that problem," he said. "A corporate landlord has like 1,000 apartments, if one or two [people] do not pay, then they [don't] care. But a small landlord, if he wants his house back, and the tenant doesn't pay, he can go bankrupt."

He said the Residential Tenancies Act and the delayed tribunal system is failing small landlords.

"The way the system is designed, it's calling for abuse."

WATCH | Small landlord advocacy group describes damage done to landlords: 
Boubacar Bah, co-chair of Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario, says that for small-scale landlords, the mental health impact of conflict with a tenant can be huge and long-lasting. 1:27

Delays 'inappropriate,' says paralegal

Lovett, a paralegal since 2009 and owner of KLP Paralegal Services, has worked with more than 20 landlord clients who faced homelessness — something she's never seen prior to COVID.

In some cases, her clients are waiting up to 14 months for an eviction decision, while the LTB promises clients "fair, effective, and timely dispute resolution."

"It's contrary to their own rules," said Lovett. "We are waiting months and months … which is totally unnecessary and inappropriate."

No one should be homeless, including a landlord.- Franchesca Ranger, formerly homeless landlord

Pearl Karimalis, a paralegal and volunteer with SOLO, questions the current state of the LTB office including whether it's short-staffed and whether everyone knows how to do their jobs properly.

She said staff have been unable to answer basic questions on her clients' files and have even accidentally sent her judgments and witness requests for cases unrelated to hers.

Though she works with more tenants, Karimalis said LTB's "bias toward tenants is systemic."

Karimalis says the LTB should temporarily extend work hours, hire more adjudicators, and the province should give police more authority to get involved in landlord-tenant disputes, especially for fraud, extortion and property damage. 

"This nightmare [keeps] going … I don't know when it's going to end," Karimalis said.

LTB acknowledges shortfalls, province promises funding

Former landlord Ranger said she wants the LTB "completely overhauled" so laws are fair for both small landlords and tenants.

She wants the provincial government to provide temporary homes for landlords facing homelessness while the LTB sorts out their dispute. The government should also reimburse landlords if they're paying for non-paying tenants to continue living on their properties, she added.

"No one should be homeless, including a landlord," Ranger said.

The Landlord Tenant Board declined an interview with CBC and didn't directly answer several questions about homeless landlords.

Instead, its statement said the provincial moratoriums pausing eviction hearings in 2020 had "a significant impact" on its caseload.

As of March, the LTB had 39 full-time and 49 part-time adjudicators, its "highest number of adjudicators ever appointed," spokesperson Janet Deline said.

"We know that we're not quite there and there is more work to do but we are confident that service improvements will be made in 2022," said Deline.

Ontario's Attorney General, the ministry responsible for the LTB, declined an interview and did not address specific questions about homeless landlords.

The ministry said it is not allowed to "interfere in, or comment on, tribunal processes or decisions," as it is an independent adjudicative body.

Brian Gray, the ministry's spokesperson, said in an email that the province will invest $4.5 million over three years to hire more adjudicators and staff to reduce backlogs at the LTB.

Both the LTB and province pointed to a new online digital portal — where people can access information on their disputes and resources for mediation and self-help tools — as a way they're addressing backlogs at LTB.

  1. Petite bourgeoisie - Wikipedia

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite_bourgeoisie

    The petite bourgeoisie is economically distinct from the proletariat and the Lumpenproletariat social-class strata who rely entirely on the sale of their labor-power for survival. It is also distinct from the capitalist class haute bourgeoisie ('high' bourgeoisie) that owns the means of production and thus can buy the labor-power of the proletariat and Lumpenproletariat to work the means of pro…

    1. Property is theft! - Wikipedia

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_is_theft!

      "Property is theft!" (French: La propriété, c'est le vol!) is a slogan coined by French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government.
      If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder!, my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument would be r…



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OMICRON COVID 
Sixth wave prompts renewed labour crunch in restaurants, retail, manufacturing


Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
Published Friday, April 8, 2022 

After two years of on-and-off lockdowns, Rachel Reinders felt a renewed sense of hope last month as pandemic restrictions eased and spring dawned on the cusp of a new patio season.

But Reinders, who heads administration at the Lieutenant's Pump pub in Ottawa, had to scale back operations yet again, shutting down its lunchtime kitchen for a week in March because four cooks were on sick leave simultaneously.

“We're not fully staffed in the kitchen as it is, so we couldn't even really lose one. And we lost four,” she said. “Those who were left behind worked double-time to pick up the slack.”



People walk by a Resto-Bar in Old Montreal, Monday, January 31, 2022, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada. Businesses across Canada are struggling to cope with the sixth wave of COVID-19, as staffing shortages hamper sectors from health care to retail and restaurants.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Businesses across Canada are struggling to cope with an apparent sixth wave of COVID-19, as staffing shortages hamper sectors from health care to hospitality and manufacturing- though the interruption remains more manageable than last winter's Omicron variant surge.

Dr. Kevin Smith, chief executive at the University Health Network in Toronto, said Wednesday that case numbers at its hospitals have shot up in the past few days, “so much so that staffing is challenging once again.”

In Montreal, parka maker Quartz Co. saw about 10 of its roughly 100 employees stay home with COVID-19 symptoms recently, though co-founder Francois-Xavier Robert says the absences were shorter than in January.

“It's just as many as we had in December,” when the company shut down its flagship store in Montreal and a pair of pop-up storefronts there and in Toronto. “Pretty much everyone that didn't have it over the winter had it in the last two weeks.

“Nobody got really sick. People were stopping for one or two days and then back to working,” Robert added. “This time it's more easygoing.”

Nonetheless, retailers, gyms and event spaces are taking yet another hit as workers fall ill or steer clear of those sectors altogether, fearing further lockdowns, said Ryan Mallough, a senior director with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

“The impact is being felt across the board, in terms of absences,” he said. “Some of that nervousness is starting to creep back into the mindset a little bit.”

Several Canadian provinces are bolstering their defences against the virus amid signs of a sixth wave. Quebec and Prince Edward Island extended their provincial mask mandates until later this month and Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia plan to expand access to fourth doses of the vaccine.

The food supply chain continues to feel pandemic pinch.

Before the onset of COVID-19, processing plants contended with a 10 per cent labour shortage as the workforce aged. After peaking at 30 per cent during the Omicron surge, the shortage remains at 25 per cent, according to Food and Beverage Canada.

“Workforce issues in primary agriculture and food manufacturing are critical and need to be addressed urgently,” Jennifer Wright, acting executive director of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council, said in a release Friday.

On Monday the federal government eased rules on temporary foreign workers in some areas of the economy desperately in need of employees, allowing employers in those industries to hire up to 30 per cent of their workforce through the program.

But Ottawa has failed to address a growing backlog for incoming workers, said Stewart Skinner, a pork farmer near Listowel, Ont. Processing times at the Immigration Department have increased from between three and four months to more than a year, he said.

“It has not been a lot of fun and the frustration is more intense because it is not due to lack of demand for our product. It is supply chain disruption that is solely because we don't have enough labour to process the pork” - a problem exacerbated by the sixth wave - Skinner said in an email.

However, labour snags for many retailers have largely stabilized.

“I don't think they're experiencing as significant a disruption as they were in January. The peak seems to have been then,” said Retail Council of Canada spokesperson Michelle Wasylyshen.

Meanwhile some offices are moving ahead as planned with back-to-work policies, though these often involve hybrid arrangements, as at Desjardins Group. Infections among its 54,000 employees are on the rise, but not to the point of hurting its services, said spokesman Jean Benoit Turcotti.

National Bank also aims to ramp up to 50 per cent capacity from mostly remote work for its 21,000 employees at the moment. It will move beyond that threshold, but only “following the momentum and the impact of this sixth wave,” said spokesman Jean-Francois Cadieux.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2022.
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Some part-time nurses in Montreal quitting as forced workload increase takes effect

Scheduling change was touted as a way to create more

 stability for nurses


BULLSHIT MANAGEMENT RIGHTS BEING IMPOSED ON WORKERS

Steve Rukavina · CBC News · 
Anaïs Desautels was happy working part time at the ICU at the Montreal General Hospital. Now she's quitting because the new collective agreement will force her to increase her workload. (Photo submitted by Anaïs Desautels)

Anaïs Desautels thought she had found the perfect balance in her life.

After working as a full-time nurse for three years, she burned out during the first wave of COVID-19.

When she returned to work in the intensive care unit at the Montreal General Hospital, she went down to three days a week.

Desautels had taken on another part-time job in a nail salon, and she felt the two jobs complemented each other.

"I had really found the right balance: a job that was fun and a job that makes me feel like I make a difference in the lives of others," she told CBC in an interview.

Now that balance is gone.  

Desautels handed in her notice at the General earlier this month, after she was told she would have to increase her workload if she wanted to stay on.

Desautels said she was told by the Human Resources department at the Montreal General Hospital that its hands were tied because of the collective agreement, and the increased workload was mandatory. (CBC)

It's because of a clause in the collective agreement signed between her union, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), and the government last fall that requires all part-time nurses in the public system to work at least 14 shifts over a 28-day period.  

For many, that represents a doubling of their current workload.

There are a few exceptions, for nurses over 55 for example, but none of them apply to Desautels. The change meant she would have to give up her job at the nail salon.

She tried to find alternatives, but the hospital's human resources department said its hands were tied by the collective agreement.

"I felt pissed," she said. "I felt I was losing control over what I wanted to do in life."

Desautels finally decided to leave nursing altogether so she could continue her work at the nail salon, which she described as "a passion."

CBC spoke to her on the day of her last shift at the hospital.

The increased workload for part-timers has been phased in at hospitals across Quebec since the fall. At most anglophone institutions in Montreal, it takes effect this week.

In recent weeks CBC has spoken to six other part-time nurses at various Montreal hospitals who are in the same situation as Desautels.

Each has their own reason for choosing to work part time. Some are mothers. Some are students. Some are worried about their health.

Some have decided to take a year's unpaid leave of absence as a temporary measure, and others are going to try the increased workload and see how it goes.

And some, such as Desautels, are quitting, all because of a measure the government and the union said would recruit and retain much-needed nurses in the public system.

'I cried. I cried a lot'

CBC spoke to another part-time nurse who gave her notice earlier this month. She didn't want to be identified because of concerns about her career prospects if she ever decides to return to the public system.  

She works at an institution that's part of the West Island health agency, the CIUSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal.

She's been a nurse for 13 years. She started working two days a week in 2018, when her first child was born.

She was told in January that as of April she'd have to double her workload.

CBC has now spoken to seven part-time nurse at various Montreal health-care facilities who feel the forced workload increase is unfair. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

"I cried. I cried a lot. I felt devastated. I was in shock when I found out," she told CBC in an interview.

"I felt like I was ripped off of my choice," she said. "I was part-time for a reason."

Spending time with her sons, who are two and four, is her priority, she said.

This nurse said she tried to work out a solution with the CIUSSS's human resources department.  

She offered to take a year's unpaid leave.  

"I told them it's not that I don't want to work, but I can't work this many hours right now," she said. 

The CIUSSS refused, because the nurse wanted to start her unpaid leave in June so she could spend the summer with her kids.  

The health agency said she could only start the leave in September because she would be needed during the busy summer period when many nurses are on holiday.

That was the last straw.

"I am resigning because it's too much," she said. "It's literally like they make you choose, you know, your work or your family."

She's decided to take some time off for now, but she hopes to return to the public system one day. She's also hopeful the government and the union might find a way to loosen the rules.

Union says small number of nurses affected

A spokesperson for the FIQ said the union couldn't comment on individual cases. But in previous stories, the FIQ has told the CBC that most nurses in the system welcome the change.

The measure was part of the collective agreement members ratified last fall.

Nurses CBC spoke to noted that only 54 per cent of nurses voted in favour of that agreement, and that the forced workload increase wasn't clearly explained.

The union said the measure will help maintain better continuity of care, make scheduling for part-time nurses more predictable, and most of all, reduce forced overtime.

Desautels said forced overtime is definitely a problem in the health-care system but not at the MUHC, where she worked.

"In the English system, we don't have forced overtime. So this measure is not going to help us. It's a measure for a problem that we don't have at the MUHC," she said.

Desautels and other nurses CBC spoke to said they wished the measure could have been voluntary or applied on a case-by-case basis.

But it's being applied to all part-time nurses in the public system across Quebec, with a few limited exceptions.

The union acknowledged the measure may have certain negative impacts for a small number of members but said "collective bargaining is not a perfect exercise."

Head nurse says change is driving some nurses away

CBC spoke to the head nurse of a department at another institution that's part of the West Island CIUSSS, who said this change is making her job more difficult.part

She also asked that we protect her identity.

The nursing manager said at least one nurse on her team is seriously considering quitting, while a couple of others are taking unpaid leave.

"I don't know why the union agreed to this," the manager said.

"The union is supposed to be representing their members. Not all of their members want to work full time. Not all of them can work full time," she said.

"You have nurses who are now contemplating leaving the public system to go to the private," she said.

"It feels like we're driving them away with these measures." she said. "We should be doing everything possible we can to keep them employed."

The Health Ministry didn't respond to CBC's request for comment for this story but said last month that it is "confident that this measure will not have a deterrent effect on nursing staff."

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ESTY SELLERS SELF UNIONIZE
Etsy strike 2022: Thousands of sellers start strike over company's fee and policy changes

Nicole Fallert
USA TODAY

Over 17,000 Etsy sellers put their shops on pause Monday to address grievances with the company.
Etsy increased its seller transaction fee from 5% to 6.5% as of Monday.
In a statement, Etsy said the increased fee would create resources to allocate toward sellers' pain points.

Thousands of Etsy sellers put their shops on vacation mode Monday to protest a number of the e-commerce company’s policies, effectively going on strike until April 18 with the goal of forming a union to negotiate with management.

“The zoomed-out view of the situation is just people losing their ability to make an income doing something creative,” Kristi Cassidy, the strike’s organizer and an Etsy seller since 2006, told USA TODAY.

Over 17,000 sellers put their shops on pause Monday in a move that is a culmination of weeks of organizing over grievances involving changes to sellers the company has rolled out in the last four years.

Most recently, in a report to investors, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman announced the company was increasing its seller transaction fee from 5% to 6.5%, effective Monday. The fee is a percentage of the total order amount that Etsy charges, according to The Verge.

“We expect to invest most of the incremental revenue from this fee increase in marketing, seller tools and creating world-class customer experiences,” the company said in the report.

The fee increase comes amid all-time high pandemic gains for the company, according to the petition Cassidy organized.

While she had been upset about other changes, the fee struck Cassidy’s last nerve. So she published “We need an Etsy sellers union” on the Etsy Sellers subreddit about two months ago.

Frustrated peers agreed with her idea. Sellers started organizing on Reddit, created a Discord server and website to help one another collaborate, and Cassidy published a petition in support of the campaign that had over 45,000 signatures as of Monday.

The organizers delivered a letter to Silverman Monday morning listing their demands, which include ending the fee increase, cracking down on resellers, eliminating a seller reward program and other issues involving offsite ads and support tickets.


In an email statement to USA TODAY, an Etsy spokesperson remarked sellers’ success is a “top priority” and said the increased fee would create resources to allocate toward sellers' pain points: “The new fee structure will enable us to increase our investments in areas outlined in the petition, including marketing, customer support and removing listings that don't meet our policies.”
An impact on business

Cassidy, 39, a homemaker who crafts custom Victorian wedding dresses and costumes, said she’s noticed Etsy make “change after change,” shifting away from the company’s original focus on helping creatives make a viable income. Given the company’s changes and the COVID-19 pandemic, she’s lost over two-thirds of her income since 2019. Etsy makes up about 90% of her income, and while she’s able to survive despite the changes, she knows that option isn’t possible for all sellers.



One of the most frustrating changes, she said, is Etsy’s Star Seller program, which was announced in July 2021 as a way to “reward shops that consistently offer excellent customer experience.”

But the metrics that allow someone to qualify for the program are more easily met by sellers who aren’t hand-making their items, Cassidy said, punishing sellers like her who make one-of-a-kind or made-to-order products.

Star sellers qualify partly out of their ability to ship orders on time, but Cassidy said it's common for a customer to purchase something and then ask for it to be customized. This extends a seller’s service time, but they’re punished for taking longer to make a unique item.

“These are not things buyers expect from independent shops, these are things they expect from Amazon,” London-based seller Joseph Fellstold USA TODAY. Fells has been on Etsy for over 10 years and hand paints t-shirts, designs enamel pins and illustrates art prints in his store Bleached Bones.

Fells noted that Etsy isn’t clear how not achieving Star Seller affects sales. And last year one of his stores was put on a payment reserve for 90 days because their copyright system made a mistake. In that time, he still had to pay for his materials despite not making an income keep his business open.

Cassidy said other grievances include shutting down resellers, people who sell mass-produced goods that they have not designed themselves.

"Sellers are having to compete with those [resell] prices ... buyers will buy those items and then they'll see it posted on Amazon for like half the price," she said. "It's horribly damaging to the platform because those buyers don't come back."

Computer-driven decisions also hurt Etsy sellers, Cassidy said, adding that sellers should have an easy path through Esty's support system to avoid holds on their shops that cut people from their income.

The Etsy spokesperson said part of the earnings from the fee increase would be allocated toward technology to mitigate these kinds of issues.

It's not possible for all sellers to strike by walking away from their businesses for a week, Cassidy said, because each seller has a different situation.
 
A different way to strike

Courtney Gamble, who runs a shop called MessQueen New York on Etsy, handmakes bright spandex from her apartment in Brooklyn. She decided to strike by adding $1,000 to each of her Etsy listings, which typically are priced below $90. Her shop announcement directs people to her official website where they will get 15% off their entire order for the duration of the strike.

Gamble has been on Etsy since 2010 and said her shop has been "at the bottom of the pile" ever since she forgot her Department of State registration number while out of town and Etsy automatically put her store on vacation mode. Now she spends resources trying to get her shop back to where it used to be, renewing her most popular listings, adding listings for new styles and upping money spent on her daily ad budget so that customers are more likely to find her.



"It's all a game," she said. "They constantly change the algorithm ... But every time we renew or add a listing, Etsy gets 20 cents from us. So it works in their favor to put successful shops at the bottom of the pile because they know we will put in money to raise our rank and get back to where we were."


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The Conversation | Amazon, Starbucks and the sparking of a new American union movement


By John Logan
Apr 10, 2022

April 1, 2022, may go down as a pivotal day in the history of American unions.

In a result that could reverberate in workplaces across the U.S., the independent Amazon Labor Union — first formed in 2020 by Chris Smalls, an Amazon worker who was fired for protesting what he saw as inadequate COVID-19 safety precautions — got the better of the previously successful anti-union efforts of the online retailer. It means that Smalls’ warehouse in the Staten Island borough of New York will be the first to have a unionized workforce.

On the same day, Starbucks Workers United — an organization affiliated with Service Employees International Union — won yet another election, making it 10 out of 11 wins for the union since first succeeding in Buffalo, N.Y., in December 2021. This time, it was the chain’s flagship roastery in New York City that opted to unionize. The organizing campaign has now spread to over 170 Starbucks stores nationwide. Several more Starbucks elections will take place in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, a rerun election at a Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., will depend on the outcome of several hundred contested ballots. Even if Amazon wins, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union has — at the very least — came tantalizingly close in what was deemed a long-shot union vote.

Something is definitely happening in the labor movement.

A different kind of organizing

As a scholar of the labor movement who has observed union drives for two decades, what I find almost as striking as the victories is the unconventional nature of the organizing campaigns. Both the Starbucks and Amazon-Staten Island campaigns have been led by determined young workers.

Inspired by pro-union sentiment in political movements, such as Bernie Sanders’ presidential bids, Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Socialists of America, these individuals are spearheading the efforts for workplace reform rather than professional union organizers. Indeed, one would be hard pressed to find many experienced organizers among the recent successful campaigns.

Instead, the campaigns have involved a significant degree of “self-organization” — that is, workers “talking union” to each other in the workplace and coffee shops and reaching out to colleagues in other shops in the same city and across the nation. This marks a sea change from the way the labor movement has traditionally operated, which has tended to be more centralized and led by seasoned union officials.

A labor revival

Perhaps more important than the victories at Starbucks and Amazon are their potential for creating a sense of optimism and enthusiasm around union organizing, especially among younger workers.

The elections follow years of union decline in the U.S. — both in terms of membership and influence.

Prior to the pandemic, these recent labor wins would have seemed unimaginable. Powerful, wealthy corporations like Amazon and Starbucks appeared invincible then, at least in the context of National Labor Relations Board rules, which are stacked heavily against pro-union workers. Under those rules, Amazon and Starbucks can — and do — force workers, on the threat of dismissal, to attend anti-union sessions, often led by highly paid external consultants.

Starbucks has said it has been “consistent in denying any claims of anti-union activity.” But in March 2022, the NLRB alleged that the chain had coerced workers, placed union supporters under surveillance and retaliated against them. Similarly, Amazon — which has in the past advertised for analysts to monitor “labor-organizing threats,” has said it respects workers’ rights to join or not join unions.

The significance of the recent victories is not primarily about the 8,000 new union members at Amazon or those at Starbucks. It is about instilling the belief that if unionization can work there, it can work anywhere.

Historic precedents show that labor mobilization can be infectious.

In 1936 and 1937, workers General Motor’s plant in Flint, Mich., brought the automaker to its knees with a sit-down strike that inspired similar action elsewhere. In the words of a Chicago doctor explaining a subsequent sit-down strike by wet nurses there, “They want to strike because everyone else is doing it.”

IT WAS NORTH AMERICA WIDE AS NEWSPAPERS OF THE DAY TESTIFY TO SUCH AS THE REPORT THE STUDENTS IN WINNEPEG STUDENTS WENT OF A SIT DOWN STRIKE SAYING THEY HAD BEEN INSPIRED BY THE CIO ORGANIZING DRIVE

Seizing the moment

The pandemic has created an opportunity for unions.

After working on the front lines for over two years during the pandemic, many essential workers like those at Amazon and Starbucks think they have not been adequately rewarded or treated with respect.

This appears to have helped spur the popularity of the Amazon Labor Union and Starbucks Workers United.

The homegrown nature of these campaigns deprives Amazon and Starbucks of a decades-old trope at the heart of corporate anti-union campaigns: that a union is an external “third party” that doesn’t understand or care about the concerns of employees and is more interested in collecting dues.

Those arguments ring hollow when the people doing the unionizing are colleagues they work alongside day in and day out.

An unfavorable legal landscape

This “self-organization” at Starbucks and Amazon is consistent with what was envisioned by the authors of the 1935 Wagner Act, the statute that provides the foundation of today’s union representation procedures.

The National Labor Relations Board’s first chair, J. Warren Madden, understood that self-organization could be fatally undermined if corporations were allowed to engage in anti-union pressure tactics:

“Upon this fundamental principle — that an employer shall keep his hands off the self-organization of employees — the entire structure of the act rests,” he wrote. “Any compromise or weakening of that principle strikes at the root of the law.”

Over the past half-century, anti-union corporations and their consultants and law firms — assisted by Republican-controlled NLRBs and right-wing judges — have undermined that process of worker self-organization by enabling union elections to become employer-dominated.

For the long-term decline in union membership to be reversed, I believe pro-union workers need stronger protections. Labor-law reform is essential.

Dispelling fear, futility and apathy

Lack of popular interest has long been an obstacle to labor-law reform.

Meaningful reform is unlikely unless people are engaged with the issues, understand them and believe they have a stake in the outcome.

But media interest in the campaigns at Starbucks and Amazon suggests the public may finally be paying attention.

It isn’t known where this latest movement — or moment — will lead. It could evaporate or it may spark a wave of organizing across the low-wage service sector, stimulating a national debate over workers’ rights in the process.

The biggest weapons that anti-union corporations have in suppressing labor momentum are the fear of retaliation and a sense that unionization is futile. The recent successes show unionizing no longer seems so frightening or so futile.


John Logan is a professor and director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University. He wrote this for The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.
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BOSTON

Workers at grocery store and 

cafe in Jamaica Plain join 

movement to unionize

Three people wearing masks stand in front of a wall lined with posters and a bulletin board.
Althea Berg, 25, Daniel Tracey, 26, and Emery Spooner, 23, at the Worker's World publishing Boston bureau on March 21, 2022. Berg, Tracey, Spooner and a core group of employees announced their plan to form a union at City Feed and Supply in Jamaica Plain on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.
Tori Bedford / GBH News
By Tori Bedford
March 30, 2022


Updated at 4:55 p.m. March 30

Employees at a high-end grocery store in Jamaica Plain filed a petition Wednesday to form a union, joining a campaign to organize workers at Starbucks outlets and other small coffee shops across Massachusetts.

The unionizing effort at City Feed and Supply, which also offers a cafe and deli, comes on the heels of union campaigns at other local businesses, including eight Pavement Coffeehouse locations throughout Boston, Darwin’s Ltd. in Cambridge, Forge, Diesel and Bloc cafes in Somerville and 11 Starbucks locations around the state.

City Feed workers told GBH News they hope to negotiate for benefits, opportunities for promotions, more power for employees when faced with harassment from customers, and better pay within a more transparent structure. Leaders of the effort say they have collected union authorization cards from a majority of the 40 workers at the store’s two locations and announced their intent to form a union affiliated with the Boston branch of the Industrial Workers of the World. The historic union with socialist ties was founded a century ago, then known as the Wobblies, and currently represents about 9,000 workers across the country.

“Workers at City Feed have long been proud of our commitment to sustainability, ethical food sourcing and local community, and we hope that those values will extend to the longstanding civil rights of workers to unionize and collectively bargain,” workers wrote in a letter delivered to owners David Warner and Kristine Cortese on Wednesday. “We hope that both City Feed and our local JP community will respect its service workers and our legal right to organize at our workplace, and we urge you to pledge not to engage in any union-busting activity.”

Warner did not say whether the company will voluntarily recognize the union effort, telling GBH News in an email that the owners are working on "a better understanding of what all of this means" and will "give it some thought" before making a decision on how to move forward.

Related Stories:

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Pro-union baristas in the Boston area say Starbucks is forcing them out but company denies retaliating

Pavement Owner Agrees To Recognize Union, Move Toward Becoming State's First Union Café

City Feed opened its first location in 2000 and has long partnered with local groups and nonprofits focused on hunger relief, sustainable farming and food equity in Jamaica Plain and surrounding neighborhoods.

In their letter, employees asked that ownership and management “not interfere with our unionizing effort in any manner, including any attempts at intimidation via one-on-one meetings regarding this organizing drive,” which regional Starbucks union organizers have accused their management of doing. Federal labor laws allow employers to present a case against organizing or joining a union.

Althea Berg, who has worked at City Feed since November 2020, said she was inspired by workers unionizing at Starbucks and Pavement locations. They said a union felt "like the only way to go forward” to address their concerns. Other workers expressed similar feelings.

“There are no, like, benefits really associated with working full time at City Feed, even for people who work there for really long. There's no, like, ‘you’ve been here for six months, you’re eligible for a raise’ kind of thing. There’s nothing like that,” said Hannah Cuthbert, a supervisor who has worked at City Feed since September. “The turnover rate is high, and there’s no real incentive to stay, so most people are young, but there are people with families to support and people who are getting through school — everyone has financial burdens they have to bear.”

Managers are often hired from outside the business, they said, which limits growth opportunities for current staff.

“They don't incentivize you to stay there longer. It's not a place that they make comfortable for people who would want to stay on and dedicate themselves to being there for a while,” Berg said. “At the core of it, we want transparency around wages and room for people to move up if they’re doing well.”

IMG_8209.JPG
Meeting roon and publishing center for the Worker's World Party in Jamaica Plain
Tori Bedford / GBH News












Workers began meeting in small groups to discuss workplace issues, an effort that waxed and waned for the better part of a year.

“The turnover has been so high that at different points we would have a lot of support, but then people would leave,” Berg said. “Then new people come in and it’s like, OK, we’ve got to get this group of people together to sign cards so that it’s actually the percent that we need.”

For the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election, 30% of workers need to sign cards or a petition saying they want a union. As of Wednesday, employees at City Feed say they have the support of at least 60%.

Within the past few months, Emery Spooner, another City Feed worker, said meetings became more regular, held in a small, poster-covered room that serves as the Boston bureau for the left-leaning publication Workers World Party and a community space in the Sam Adams brewery building in Jamaica Plain.

“Eventually, through those conversations, we got more folks involved and we realized that we have the support, the solidarity and the desire to actually change this workplace," Spooner said. "Every worker deserves a union.”

This story was updated to correct the pronouns of two workers.

  • Tori headshot.jpeg
    Tori Bedford  @tori_bedford

    Tori Bedford (she/her/hers) covers the Boston neighborhoods of Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan for the GBH News Dorchester Bureau.

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