A Report from the ’Rank‑and‑File: Organizing the Service Industry’

On July 30, 2018 an ICP member attended a panel discussion in New York City. The discussion was titled ‘A Report from the Rank-and-File: Organizing the Service Industry’. The event consisted of a panel of worker organizers from five different labor organizations and focused on discussing organizing in the low-wage service sector. We feel these five campaigns demonstrate the variety of rank and file unionism occuring in the US.

Organizers on the panel are employed in the food service portion of the low-wage service economy, and those on the panel included: a member of the IWW’s Burgerville Workers Union in Portland, OR; two workers who recently formed a union affiliated with SEIU/Workers United, at the Gimme! Coffee shops in Ithaca, NY; a member of the “United Kava Workers Local 138” a single shop union at the House of Kava in Brooklyn, NY, who have now formed their own worker cooperative; a worker organizer from IWW’s “Stardust Family United” union in Manhattan, NY; and an organizer from the Laundry Workers Center who was involved in the Hot & Crusty Campaign also in New York City.

The service sector is no small part of the American economy, currently representing nearly 80% of both private sector GDP and employment. Though this figure could incorporate industries such as logistics and transportation, due to an ambiguity in the way that the American state considers these industries, the low-wage service sector is without a doubt a quickly-growing portion of the United States’ economy. In terms of union density, the low-wage food service sector is a mere 1.8% unionized, less than the lowly total United States private sector density at 6.5%. On the other hand, however, in 2017, there has been notable growth in unionized workers among the age demographic of 35 and younger, a demographic most likely to enter into the service sector. In 2017 alone, more than a quarter of all the 860,000 hired workers in this age group were being hired into unionized jobs.

The panel members were asked questions and each representative from the five organizations responded. Questions focused on organizing strategies, how to build community support for low-wage service work campaigns, what role one’s fears and hopes play in the process of organizing low-wage workers, and questions as to how each of the campaigns progressed to their present state. Each of the five campaigns represented on the panel emerged out of the contradictions of the low-wage service economy in the United States. Stressful, high intensity work with little compensation, combined with high levels of insecurity drove these workers to band together to fight the boss on the shop floor, and eventually seek union representation. All of the campaigns represented on the panel prioritized shop-floor struggle and committee building, choosing first to use the tactics of direct action to make small gains, prior to “going public” with their union.

Nevertheless, not all the campaigns present on the panel followed similar paths to arrive where they are today. Both IWW campaigns, Stardust Family United and the Burgerville Workers Unions, chose to eschew seeking a contract with their employer (the golden seal of legitimacy among bureaucratized labor unions in the United States). Instead, they maintain their union structures through continued committee-building and direct action tactics, winning workplace demands through acts of strength and solidarity on the shopfloor.

1.The IWW union at the Stardust Restaurant in Manhattan’s Times Square has received a great deal of attention for their tactics. They have blockaded the restaurant to prevent deliveries being made, walked out on shift and conducted actions which involved the patrons of the restaurant. We understand that in most countries, this is not anything unusual, but in the US, these actions are increasingly rare, especially in the service industry. Their union and its tactics have been spreading to other restaurants in NYC.

2.The Burgerville Workers Union did hold a a National Labor Relations Board-sanctioned vote at a location in April 2018, making the union the first fast-food union in United States history to win recognition; however they profess that the negotiation of a contract is not the primary goal of their organizing. Initially, the Union focused on pushing Burgerville to give its workers wage increases, paid sick leave, and to stop using E-Verify, a form of worker monitoring software employed by the state to check immigration status of employees, all through a combination of shop-floor direct action tactics, “quickie” walk-outs and robust community organizing, drawing support from other Portland union locals.

3.The other campaigns represented on the panel have sought from the beginning of their organizing to sign union contracts with their employer, not least among them the Gimme! Coffee workers, whose union organizing is supported by the SEIU-affiliated Workers United. Gimme! Workers Local 2833 was first organized and supported through an upstate New York workers center, who put them in touch with Workers United. The campaign’s work builds upon past IWW campaigns at Starbucks stores across the US, and presents itself with language that calls into question campaigns to enact wage legislation (like the Fight for $15) to improve the circumstances of workers.

4.United Kava Workers and their coop. The House of Kava workers began their struggle with a strike against poor work conditions, eventually calling a boycott after their employer fired an organizer. The workers eventually decided to form a cooperative to compete with their former employer, serving kava drinks at a local supporter business called Caffeine Underground. This campaign is sponsored by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and represents a new contingent within that organization focused on organizing in precarious industries.This has been a tactic in certain localities in the IWW, which gravitate to self-management ideology. Such tactics turn workers into small business people, suck money out of the labor movement, separate militants from other workers, encourage an ideology of a nice capitalism. All common confusions in the anarchist/punk subculture.

5.Hot and Crusty Workers Association was the fifth and final union represented on the panel. Established in 2012, the Bakery’s union was composed primarily of immigrant workers from Latin America. After the union went public, it saw retaliation by Hot and Crusty Bakery owners culminating in a closure of their shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. After a long campaign of picketing other Hot and Crusty bakeries, a new investor purchased the store, rehired the workers and recognized their union. This campaign received support both from Occupy Wall Street participants and members of the League of the Fourth International (Internationalist Group). Now formally out of work, numerous Hot and Crusty Workers organizers are affiliated with the Laundry Workers Center, a member of whom sat on this panel.

A common theme of the panel is the neglect of the low-wage service sector by the major bureaucratized service unions – what the ICP calls “regime unions”. Each of the unions present on the panel were not the product of targeted union campaigns but instead they were so-called ‘hot shops’ of workers fed-up with grueling conditions with little compensation and high levels of insecurity. The Gimme! Coffee workers are an exception here, organized by Workers United, an SEIU affiliate focused on organizing low-wage workers in the garment and retail sectors. Nevertheless, workers sought out union representation and called upon Workers United for support, who then subsequently advised that Gimme! Coffee workers seek a contract.

Taken together, we might conclude that although the service work is a largely un-unionized yet growing portion of the American economy, and that this sector is traditionally ignored by highly bureaucratized service unions, fertile ground for class struggle unionism exists here. The militant struggles of the IWW campaigns featured on the ‘Report Back’ panel, as one example, point to a potential future of non-contract focused direct action campaigns in these precarious industries.