After failing to receive voluntary recognition, Hex Workers United held a union election and yesterday they won! This probably makes them the first unionized board game cafe in New York City.
Additionally, and according to Dicebreaker, their sister stores Uncommons and the Brooklyn Strategist have just filed for union elections. It seems likely these stores will also unionize, but they're facing the same resistance from management as Hex&Co. You can sign petitions in favor of each union below the cut:
Six months after they've unionized as Tabletop Workers United, workers at Hex&Co, the Brooklyn Strategist, and the Uncommons are asking for your help in pushing back against their owners, whose representative at contract negotiations reportedly verbally abused them two weeks ago.
Specifically and most recently, workers are alleging that Andrew Hoffmann, the legal representative for store owners Jon Freedman and Greg May, told workers they were ‘fucking disgusting’ and to ‘burn in hell.’ In a letter to the owners, the union writes that:
[...]during our discussion of the Union Shop portion of our contract, your attorney became angry and belligerent, and was allowed to shout at us, “you should all burn in hell” before repeatedly cursing about personal political beliefs unrelated to our negotiations. [...] Many of our members were fearful that the violence of your chosen representative’s expression would become physical. It was clear to all present that he had lost control of himself, and your inaction not only enabled him in his hateful rhetoric, your silence validated and endorsed the content of his rhetoric.
But workers also charge that this is a pattern of behavior between Hoffmann and the owners too. The NYC Central Labor Council adds in their write-up of the situation that during other bargaining sessions "ownership has called workers ‘disgusting, low-class morons’ for holding a community event in support of their union, and called their contract demands regarding diversity and equity the ‘insanity of the woke.’" They've also bargained unseriously, including being late or cancelling bargaining sessions and making counterproposals that Tabletop Workers United will clearly not agree to.
As a result, Tabletop Workers United is asking for you to sign their public petition, which demands that the workers receive respect during negotiations. You should be able to do this below the cut (or follow the bit.ly link/QR code on the image here):