Iowa City Bruegger's Bagels employees get clearance to hold chain's first union vote

Union votes can go forward at an Iowa City Bruegger's Bagels store, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled.

The workers claim their quest to organize Bruegger's Workers United is the first unionization effort at a Bruegger's anywhere in the country.

Workers from both an Iowa City store and a location in Coralville sought approval for the July 9 vote. Employees in Coralville will be ineligible after the store closed May 31 in what workers have alleged was a "union-busting move" two days after they announced their plan to unionize.

The National Labor Relations Board ruling makes no mention of the Coralville closure.

Representatives with Bruegger's declined to comment on the ongoing union activity.

Union representative Juniper Hollis, a former employee of the closed Coralville store, told the Press-Citizen on Friday that all employees at the Iowa City location will be eligible to vote.

The board's report indicated that Hollis "resigned" from her position on June 1.

She said that with only 18 days between this ruling and the union vote, she was left with a mix of emotions.

"These are people's livelihoods on the line," Hollis said. "I want to make sure that they're all getting what they deserve, so it's definitely nerve-wracking to have (an election) date, but it's exciting too, because we know that we've worked toward this, and we're going to keep working toward this."

Over the coming few weeks, Hollis will continue to talk with employees, engage in picket lines like one employees staged June 15 outside the 708 S. Riverside Drive Bruegger's in Iowa City and gauge employee support for unionization.

A Bruegger's location in downtown Iowa City is not part of the proposed bargaining unit.

In the weeks since employees announced they would seek to form a union, Hollis has engaged other labor organizations in the area. Conversations included members of the Iowa City Federation of Labor and employees from downtown Iowa City's Starbucks location, where employees unanimously voted to unionize last May.

Many of those employees have found new employment, she said. Hollis is still searching for a job but said she might try to find a position in a union-related field, "now that I have some experience in the field."

Bruegger's Workers United must provide a full list of eligible voters to the labor board by Tuesday.

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Board says all elements of labor law 'clearly' met

The judgment, delivered by NLRB Regional Director Jennifer Hadsall, analyzes the employees' attempt to unionize based on a three-pronged test outlined in the National Labor Relations Act.

The act defines a labor organization as "...any organization of any kind, or any agency or employee representation committee or plan, in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work."

Hadsall determined that all elements of this definition were "clearly" met.

"Elements one and three of this test are indisputable," she wrote. The employees, she said, are participants in this organization, and the proposed union would bargain for "wages... and other conditions of work."

The middle portion of the act cites the purpose of "dealing with employers." Hadsall noted that Bruegger's cited a 1995 board ruling that a group of five workers at a hospital did not constitute a labor organization because they had united around a single issue: opposition to wage cuts. The board found that did not constitute a "pattern or practice in which a group of employees, over time, makes proposals to management" and management responds.

Hadsall, however, wrote that Bruegger's employees seem to have multiple fronts on which they want to engage Bruegger's, including "wages, workplace respect and paid time off."

Hadsall wrote that the labor organization is in its beginning stages. According to the board's ruling, there is no official union constitution, dues have not yet been collected, and there is no official meeting space.

The two meetings held so far have taken place at Hollis' apartment.

"While the Petitioner is not yet fully fledged, the record establishes sufficient evidence to establish labor organization status under the Board’s liberal standards," Hadsall wrote.

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Des Moines Register staff writer Kyle Werner contributed to this article.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: NLRB rules Bruegger's employees in Iowa City may hold union vote