Mass firings, wage cuts and open hostility: workers are still unionizing despite obstacles

Nearly 100 employees have been fired in retaliation for union organizing at Starbucks locations across the country, according to workers. Photograph: Ross D Franklin/AP

Brandi McNease worked at a Chipotle in Augusta, Maine, where she and her co-workers had filed a union election petition in June 2022, the first location of the fast-food retail chain to do so.

Chipotle closed the store permanently on 19 July, right before a hearing with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on the union election, leaving workers saying they were blacklisted from being hired at other locations in the area. Chipotle claimed the store was shut down due to staffing problems. Workers have filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB over the store closure.