The union elections at five Compass Coffee locations are being put on hold after ballots have been challenged in what union advocates are calling a potential union-busting attempt.
Last month, employees filed union petitions at seven locations of the small Washington, D.C.-based coffee chain, and now workers are claiming that about 100 ballots are invalid because they were cast by workers hired by Compass Coffee right before the election. The union’s claims about invalid ballots refer to a union-busting practice known as “unit packing,” where companies will try to increase hiring of people that they are confident will vote against a union in the weeks leading up to a union election. This could lead to legal repercussions, an attorney told Bloomberg Law.
Compass Coffee United, the union representing workers that is a branch of Workers United — the same union that organizes Starbucks workers — has contested 101 votes, and is claiming only 22 votes are valid (all 22 of the non-contested votes came back in favor of unionizing, the union said).
“Instead of winning our union today, Compass Coffee decided to drag out the process by muddying the waters through hiring over 100 employees for the petitioned cafes, and engaging in illegal union-busting tactics,” Compass Coffee United’s statement released on social media said. “If [Compass Coffee CEO] Michael Haft had decided to respect workers’ rights, we could have both avoided months of litigation, only to reach the same outcome of union representation for Compass workers.”
According to the National Labor Relations Board, workers at four out of the five cafes voted to form a union (at one café, ballots were not opened), however, because the election was challenged, the regional director of the NLRB will decide whether to open or count any of the contested ballots. Parties have until next week to file objections to the election, which could result in a hearing. The results of the union election at Compass Coffee will not be made official until all challenges are cleared up.
Nation’s Restaurant News reached out to Compass Coffee for a response to this election challenge but did not receive a reply in time for publication.
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