A worker at the May opening of Glo’s above Capitol Hill Station
Workers at Capitol Hill’s Glo’s Diner say they have voted to end representation by Restaurant Workers United, opting to go it alone when it comes to working with management over issues of scheduling, wages, and workplace safety.
Workers who were part of organizing the union as the diner reopened this summer in its new location above Capitol Hill Station have not been available to discuss the decertification vote with one telling CHS they were too shocked about the outcome to immediately comment.
Representatives for the tiny Restaurant Workers United which has been active in only a few workplaces across the country also have opted not to comment at this time.
UPDATE 11/6/2023: CHS spoke with Sean Case, a Glo’s employee who worked to organize the union and opposed the decertification, here: Worker who tried to organize Glo’s, owner talk about decertification vote, what’s next for Capitol Hill diner
In a statement, Glo’s owners Julie Reisman and Steve Frias who voluntarily recognized the union this summer as they prepared for opening in the new location, said the change will help the business stabilize after a challenging start.
“Now that the staff is settled on this matter, we can turn our attention more fully toward what we do best, which is preparing and serving our food to our loyal guests and the greater community,” they write in a statement sent in response to a CHS inquiry. “We look forward to stabilizing our operations in our new space so we can re-engage with our local community and establish the best way to commence a new look community service program.”
The full statement from Glo’s ownership — signed Moving forward — is below.
Azriel Vovin, who tells CHS he worked with others among Glo’s two dozen or so employees to file the decertification petition, said the result of this week’s vote is not an argument against the value of unions and worker rights.
UPDATE: The final vote was 11 to 12.
“Glo’s is a good place to work,” Vovin said, telling CHS that he and others who voted to decertify were uncomfortable with RWU leadership and its efforts to grow the union. “We don’t need six stewards.”
Vovin said he was new to Glo’s when joining staff around the May opening and admitted that there has been a divide on unionization between workers who have been part of Glo’s longer and those who are more recent arrivals.
Another worker who supported removing the union, Rob Ford is newer to Glo’s having also joined staff for the reopening but he has worked at food and drink businesses on the Hill for years. The service industry veteran wanted it clear he was reaching out to CHS on his own accord to explain the vote.
“Maybe, once Glo’s is established, then it could be time for a union,” Ford said, saying the unionization efforts timing being tied to the move to a new location put too large a burden on the small business. Ford says, in the meantime, he didn’t want to watch another Capitol Hill favorite fail.
The decertification process, according to the National Labor Relations Board, is straightforward. “Employees may file a petition for decertification (RD) if they believe support for a union has diminished, after collecting signatures from at least 30% of workers in a unit,” the documentation reads. “A majority of votes decides the outcome.”
The Glo’s decision is, meanwhile, a significant blow to the nascent efforts of Restaurant Workers United which has reported only a handful of members in recent annual reports as other efforts like increasing union representation at big chain Starbucks have grown. Ben Reynolds, a representative for the RWU group, declined to comment on the vote at this time citing solidarity with the Glo’s workers who are “taking a minute to recover emotionally from the strain of this election.” CHS will update our reporting when we hear back.
The full statement from Glo’s ownership is below:
This week the Glo’s staff democratically voted to remove Restaurant Workers United as their bargaining representative.
We, Glo’s ownership, have gone to great lengths to support and retain our staff over the years, especially through the pandemic and the fire at our old location. They are extremely important to us and our operations. We consider them through every decision we make, and will continue to do so going forward. We look forward to continuing to work with our team members to serve our community.
Now that the staff is settled on this matter, we can turn our attention more fully toward what we do best, which is preparing and serving our food to our loyal guests and the greater community. We look forward to stabilizing our operations in our new space so we can re-engage with our local community and establish the best way to commence a new look community service program. Being engaged with our local community remains a core value of our team.We believe the future holds success for us, and we are committed to sharing that success with our staff.
Moving forward,
Julie & Steve
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Cooks and dishwashers are the most mistreated in the restaurant game. I’m not sure this was a good idea all around. But hey! It’s Capitol Hill right! No business on the hill has ever gave their employees the film flam!
They USED to be. They now make double what they used to and you don’t have to have an ounce of experience. Just show up sober, stay sober, be involved in contributing, and off you go with $30-$35/hr. I know. I have worked in restaurant management for 15 years in this town.
Wow! That much money for washing dishes? If unionization was responsible for such an inflated wage, then the owners have every right to be unhappy. It would be impossible to make any profit.
Well, the minimum wage in Seattle is approaching $20 per hour and back of the house employees, dishwashers included, now participate in the tip pool so $35-40 an hour is definitely attainable without putting the restaurant out of business.
What a weird way of saying the people who cook your food and clan up after you don’t deserve a living wage.
…which means we all deserve $13 hamburgers (that used to be $5 or 6 about 5 years ago). Glad I’m not on Social Security or some other fixed income. Let’s don’t pretend that having one of the highest minimum wages in the country doesn’t have a direct role in making the cost of living a lot higher here.
Interesting. Unions should always be an option, but they (or one in particular) may not always be a good fit for a situation or group. If this was indeed the choice of the workers there, I support them, though it sounds like this wasn’t exactly unanimous.
That’s the thing about a vote, you just need the majority. So your suspicion it wasn’t unanimous is correct. Well done.
there’s no call to be so unpleasantly snide. it’s clear that I meant that this matter was likely complex and much contested.
BOOOO 👎 honestly such a mistake, boycott Glo’s, the owners are union busters filling their staff with partners and drinking buddies and grooming their 20 year old staff member to be hateful. Those who voted to decertify are cowards and scabs. The whole decertification was full of deceit. Not a worker, never have been, just a supporter of the union.
Voting to decertify isn’t the definition of “scab”.
Right, but no one said that it was. Working against the efforts to unionize a workplace does make you a scab however. OP was saying they are (or were) acting as scabs, at least until there was no more union affiliation to undermine. Now they are all just non-unionized employees. From the employee’s perspective regarding pay and benefits, a unionized job is always better than a non-unionized job. Hope that helps you understand better.
A scab is someone who works in an establishment even when it’s other workers are on strike. Voting against or working to defeat unionization efforts does not make someone a scab. Engaging in such activities merely means that person is exercising their legal right not to be represented by a union. This assumes, of course, that they’re not engaging in any illegal anti-union activities. Hope that helps you understand better.
You … HATE … these humans? Bold, edgy, ignorant, and oh so Seattle.
“Not a worker, never have been, just a supporter of the union” lol! Then you really don’t have standing to comment on the decisions of workers.
20 year olds apparently have no agency, lol. “GROOMED! THEY WERE GROOOOOOOOOOOOOMED”
20 year olds have no agency apparently. What about the older people there that also cast in their vote? Their all “chummy” drunks and apparently have no idea what they are doing. What else makes them not real people, keep going.
This is very interesting. I don’t really understand why employees of a small business choose to unionize when they feel pretty good about how they’re treated by their employer.
I worked in social work and the agency I worked for was non-unionized. The conditions were horrible. I came back 10 years later and they had been unionized for 6 years. The conditions were as bad as was the morale. I asked people who had been there both throughout the union and non-union years if anything changed for the better and they said no. And made it harder to fire bad employees. The wages still sucked. I definitely think that unions can do a lot of good but if it’s not broken don’t fix it. And even when it really needs to be fixed from my experience it doesn’t seem like unions always improve the workplace for employees, although I’m sure sometimes they do.
Small business ownership sometimes needs another vested party to save them from fuckups they believe they’re entitled to make.
Because “Solidarity,” and because they want to promote themselves as having Organized and Joined The Movement.
In other words, a lot of puffed-up reasons having little to nothing to do with how the business is actually treating them, and a lot more to do with them wanting to be the main characters in social media SoLiDaRiTy.
Ah yes, but the Union boss sure had a nice Cadillac.
Good for the employees for being savvy enough to reverse a bad decision. Most of the loudest pro-union people I know have never actually had to pay dues to stewards and union officials who don’t really do anything other than grandstand.
Glo’s is a greasy spoon diner, not some coal mine where you might die without safety precautions (which are already guaranteed without unionization anyway).
As an employee, you are far better off focusing your efforts on being excellent at your work, then bargaining individually instead of bargaining collectively and paying the union for zilch in return.
End of the day, I think a lot of progressives (which is 90% of cities like ours) have just been told “Unions good!” their whole lives and never sat down to think through the practical realities.
The practical reality is they fired one of the crucial people in forming the union at all and then added few new hires that absolutely think being chummy with the owners is more than enough. Simple as, but of course you’re going off an agnostic playbook based on ideological vibes.
You are believing the lies of a sad disgruntled ex employee who was fired six months ago and seems to have some hard feelings about it.. Believe it or not, many of the new hires did not agree with being excluded from the decision to start the union in the first place and also did not agree with a draft contract that heavily favored the old staff in every way. You are being extremely dehumanizing to the staff that voted against the union (you know, the MAJORITY) who decided that they have a right to choose who represents them. But I guess have fun spreading hate and misinformation about a group of workers merely exercising their rights.
Prove these “lies” oh wait you can’t.
Yes and the disgruntled ex employee can’t prove any of their baseless accusations either but that hasn’t stopped you from believing them. Enjoy your confirmation bias and willful ignorance.
This is the most histrionic reply ive ever read on this site
Figured it was just a cush job for experienced elbow rubbing
kitchen alcoholics who have bs’ed their way into management. Let me guess. They are a bunch of white dudes with tattoos and eclectic taste in band music who always have a grumpy look on their face unless they are talking to their buddies. And never do prep work, or wash dishes. Sad! Good thing I can make my own breakfast food!
It’s really easy to read this and imagine how it might look through a different lens.
Employee with intensely progressive ideals needs correction. Employee doesn’t like the correction and characteristically believes they don’t need to respond to correction, develops toxic attitude, promotes unionization. Employee gets fired for bad attitude, spreads the story as “union-busting”, and all of Seattle believes it because any small business owner is clearly a rich asshole that hates unions and couldn’t possibly figure out how to be fair without them. Meanwhile, new employees are hired and they develop a positive relationship with the owner because their attitude doesn’t suck. People start calling new employees “chummy”, like it’s a bad thing. There is no amount of profit that could make opening a restaurant on Capitol Hill worth it to me. The business is barely worth being in even when you have a terrific staff.
You’re fucking lying, lol, their record was exemplary.
Its a known dynamic in restaurant organizing and it is what it is – some places are not organizable because the entire enterprise has been one whole labor unit top to bottom for decades and its overformalized and superfluous to the workers. They feel they have a conduit to have some say and they really dont need the extra oomph of a union and what that entails.
Also, the post youre replying to is a pretty neutral description – a union without stewards ceases to exist. There neednt even be purposeful firing about the union, they could leave on their own for a better or worse, or be hit by a bus. Like, yall know how it looks which is why but they were fired, a plain fact. And the makeup of employees changed, a plain fact. The only speculation is that employees think they have a good enough relationship to not need a union, which is based on them decertifying.
Sounds like a pretty tenuous balance to keep such an extreme measure intact. Like if the problems were actually pervasive and insurmountable enough to need a union, the union should outlast the imbalance caused by the loss of a single employee.
I’m not going to weigh in on the union, but will opine that if you’ve ever eaten at Glo’s you’d know “greasy spoon diner” isn’t what it is. Not that a greasy spoon diner is a bad thing, but it’s not what Glo’s is. Find me hollandaise that good at a greasy spoon, I dare you.
I used to eat at Glo’s. It is a greasy spoon diner that charges exorbitantly. It wouldn’t survive in any neighborhood but this one, where people have more money than sense.
This is hilarious anti-worker propaganda. Anyone in a properly functioning union during the pandemic (or any time of need) would disagree vehemently with your insinuation that just being “excellent at your job” and bargaining individually will get you more than bargaining collectively. You’ve never heard of “strength in numbers”?
Yes, of course you have. But your comment wasn’t made in good faith in the first place, because again this is clearly anti-worker propaganda.
COAL MINE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS IN PLACE says reality strikes…come on…this is gold!!!
Anti-worker propaganda? The workers agreed to decertify. You don’t actually know the reasons and neither do I. It was a vote.
Wow… BAD MOVE for the workers here. Awful.
How can you deny the agency of Glo’s workers that voted not to be in a union? Why is “worker solidarity” only valid if they obey a pro-Union party line?
Exactly. Street goes both ways.
This whole situation leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The allegations coming from the person who was terminated may or may not be true but they’re enough to keep me from going there.
So you choose to believe the alleged bad and not the alleged good without any due diligence? TBH that’s seems like an overreaction.
Hilarious. Workers decided a Union was not in their better interest, their employer treated them fine without one.
Where’s your God now, Socialist Alternative?
New workers hired specifically to get around the union vote. Where’s your hyperbole and lack of nuance now??
I’ll be voting with my wallet and visiting Glo’s. Their menu was always great; the issue I had with them is I go to a restaurant for a nice meal, not a sermon on Socialism.
There’s enough hyperbole in your comment for everyone.
If you’re going to say something like that you need to be able to prove it, plain and simple. So, Derek, prove it.
I don’t know the full story here; and only people involved directly in the vote would. A lot of you are conjecturing, which just spreads misinformation. I have had a lot of experience working for unions – some good, some bad, some indifferent. None of it matters here. Know why? Every situation is different.
Does anyone commenting actually work in food? Do 30 years and tell me your thoughts on unions. It’s a labor intensive job, but im sure you’re employer is thinking about your long-term health.
Worked in food (bar, restaurants at several levels of quality, including at least one diner fairly similar menu to Glo’s) .. and not once did I nor my coworkers want to be in a union. They are anathema to successful small business operation.
Jeez, back when I did my restaurant years in Chicago, the only organizing we had to do was figuring out who brought enough coke so we could go clubbing all night after we closed.
I and my fellow employees voted overwhelming several years ago to decertify our union. Our Local, which was led by an employee of a competing company, was sabotaging our contract negotiations. We had to get National involved to rectify the situation, after which we dropped them. We’re now represented by another union that more closely fits with our industry, and most of us are quite happy with that.
These things happen.
Chaos is a wheel. This one’s on top, than that one’s on top, and on and on it spins
Seems like there’s a union of bitchy comments here.
Comrades, what would Sawant do?
Do as she’s always done- be ineffective and grandstand.
She wouldn’t screw up the issue at hand as badly as your comment has, that’s for sure
Boo Hoo. You made me wet my muumuu!
That’s easy: Call a rally, get 100s of her followers to wave red and white signs all exactly the same while she compared Glo’s to Capitalist Oppression and the Owner Class… Then she and her followers would pose for selfies, then go march at the owners of Glo’s private residence and terrorize their children by banging on the house, chanting hostile slogans, and writing threats on the sidewalks for 4 hours. After that, go on social media and fundraise for the Socialist Alternative using the best vids and photos from the fun day she just had. Then demand we tax Amazon.
Who gives a damn what Sawant would do. She’s a lame duck, thankfully. Let’s leave her to the dustbin of history.
She would show solidarity by not eating at Glo’s. Well, at least she’d try to, but it might be a challenge, she loves that place! I once saw her throw back an entire eggs Californian, huevos rancheros, AND blueberry pancakes. It was very impressive, the councilwoman has a much heartier appetite than you would expect from a person her size! #queenshit
l don’t work there so l can’t speak to this. l hope everything works out, much love
I hope they fail. Not supporting union workers is a baseline for industry. RIP old Glo’s. Should have known they’d go to shit.
“Old Glo’s” was a friendly neighborhood breakfast spot on Olive Way run by a kind and welcoming grandmother figure.
The “old” you’re referring to, where they feed homeless and enable crime and ultimately get burned down by some of the same drug campers that they encourage to camp nearby, all the while proclaiming their Marxist solidarity…
That Glo’s comes later, and is completely foreign to many patrons of the original Glo.
Hopefully now the spirit of Glo’s can re-emerge out from the CHAZ CHOP Marxist shadow it was put under by people who changed Glo’s into their own private hobo feed and fundraising platform. I hope so.
Supporting** wish they had edit button here.
Worked there for 5 months and quit about a month ago. To give context: I signed a union card but the bosses and employees never came to resolution over a union contract therefore we didn’t have union benefits yet. The union was asking for wage/tip transparency, prior notice on scheduling, and even wages for back of house. I quit because I was burnt out on restaurant industry in general (not this stuff) but I’m disappointed to see they couldn’t work something out. I’m seeing a lot of misinformation here about the union so I thought I’d give my perspective from someone who actually worked there.