Compass Coffee union drive triggers mass hiring, sparking ballot eligibility controversy

On May 31, some employees at 18 Compass Coffee locations launched a public union campaign. On June 4, Workers United, the union supporting the campaign, filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold elections in five bargaining units across seven stores, involving 47 employees.

According to Joseph Babin, a member of the organizing committee and a Compass shift supervisor, management at the Washington, D.C.-based company began adding a large number of employees, including executives from other companies, during the second week of June.

On June 19, Compass CEO Michael Haft told Restaurant Dive that the seven stores had about 100 employees. However, Compass reported to the NLRB and Workers United that the seven stores had 167 potential voters.

John Logan, chair of the Department of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University's Lam Family College of Business, said, "If an employer says a store that typically has 15 to 25 employees actually has 50 employees, that's a bit of a stretch."

Many of the potential voters listed by Compass appear to have been hired recently, and not all of them are hourly baristas. According to shift supervisors who worked with them, some had worked shifts as baristas. This mass hiring and the inclusion of non-baristas or barista trainees on the list could raise issues ahead of the union election scheduled for July 16.

Tyler Hofmann, an organizer with Workers United, said the union plans to "challenge people who we don't believe have worked at these stores, as well as those who were brought in specifically to dilute the vote."

Among the list of potential voters submitted by Compass is Jacob Tyner—who, according to his LinkedIn profile, is general counsel to U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). Restaurant Dive confirmed Tyner's identity by cross-referencing the Compass list and LinkedIn information with records from the Maryland State Bar Association and the George Mason Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. As of press time, Tyner and Sullivan's office had not responded to requests for comment.

Others on the list include Graham McLaughlin, president of the snack brand Snacklins and a former candidate for the D.C. citywide council, and Cullen Gilchrist, founder and CEO of Union Kitchen, a Washington, D.C.-based food business accelerator. Union Kitchen recently engaged in a prolonged battle with UFCW Local 400 over union representation.

McLaughlin said he has never worked for Compass or been employed by Compass. "I helped them with a training once," he said, "so that might be why I'm on the list. But I never worked a shift or anything else." McLaughlin said he will not vote.

In an interview with Restaurant Dive, Haft said Gilchrist is a close friend and business partner. Haft is a board member of Gilchrist's Union Kitchen. As of press time, Gilchrist had not responded to requests for comment.

Haft added that in high-turnover industries like coffee shops with many small workplaces, employees do not need unions. Haft said, "I would very much prefer that we don't need a union to represent baristas," and that employees unhappy with their jobs "might be better off looking for opportunities elsewhere."

Also on the list is Tizzy Brown, who handles national partnerships and federal affairs at Uber. According to a letter Compass sent to Brown on June 19, she was not employed by Compass when the list was submitted to Workers United and the NLRB on June 18. Brown said in an email to Restaurant Dive that she attended a training session hosted by Compass on June 9 because she was interested in potentially working part-time for the company. Brown signed some documents at the event and was added to Compass's system as an employee. However, according to the letter from Compass, she was removed from the company's system on June 9. Brown said, "I never worked a shift other than that initial training, and when this came to light, I contacted Compass and asked to ensure I was removed from their employment system."

Haft declined to discuss whether specific individuals were employed by Compass Coffee, citing privacy concerns.

David Rosenfeld, a labor attorney at Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld, said it is uncommon in NLRB elections to claim that people who do not work at the company are employees. "If that's true, it's completely bizarre, unreal, crazy," Rosenfeld said. "I've never heard of an employer being so stupidly egregious." Rosenfeld said that if Compass did indeed pad the bargaining unit as alleged, the union could easily succeed in challenging ballots or seeking a re-run election.

Who is eligible to vote has not yet been determined

Logan said that typically, the NLRB tries to determine the "community of interest" among workers when determining the appropriate bargaining unit for an election. Logan said it is fairly common for large employers to try to swamp the bargaining unit with new hires or by including other job classifications and departments of existing company employees, but such tactics are uncommon among smaller employers like a regional coffee chain.

Parties in NLRB elections often challenge ballots of those deemed not part of the bargaining unit. In some cases, it depends on job duties: managers with the power to hire and fire are excluded from voting. Shift supervisors with limited supervisory duties, such as Babin and another pro-union shift supervisor, Penina Meier-Silverman, are not always excluded, and due to this ambiguity, they often vote in union elections.

If the number of challenged ballots is enough to affect the election outcome, the NLRB's regional office will hold a hearing to determine voter eligibility, then count the eligible ballots.

Haft said in an email to Restaurant Dive that the final voters will be determined by the NLRB, Workers United, and Compass through a collaborative process on July 14, a few days before the scheduled election, but he expects Workers United will not challenge the list. "We believe all Compass Coffee employees working at the stores where petitions were filed are eligible," Haft wrote. "The list reflects current employees at the time of the vote."

Under the election agreement between Compass and the union, employees employed by Compass during the pay period ending July 14, and those who averaged four or more hours per week in the quarter prior to that date, are eligible to vote.

Haft said some employees on the list were transferred from other stores. Haft said many are new hires, which he said were necessary due to seasonal employment fluctuations at stores near universities. Compass Coffee, according to Haft, "is busiest in the warmer months, which we call 'cold brew season,' so employment always increases at this time of year. As a retail business that survived COVID-19, we're grateful to finally see this trend."

However, on June 19, Haft showed Restaurant Dive records indicating that foot traffic at Compass stores in downtown Washington, D.C., including one unionized store, was down more than 50% compared to comparable days in June 2019.

Kolyo Kolev, a shift supervisor and union supporter at the Georgetown store on Wisconsin Avenue, said his store "is in one of its slowest phases." Nevertheless, Kolev said, staffing at the Georgetown store has ballooned compared to before the union campaign. "Today, we have six people working in the store. On a weekday, that's kind of unheard of," Kolev said on June 20. "Usually we have at most four, four to three."

Haft said some employees were hired to fill gaps because Compass was staffing two new stores with experienced baristas, while others were being trained for future growth. Haft said the company puts new hires through "Coffee Academy" training, inspired by his experience in the U.S. Marine Corps, to prepare new employees to work as baristas.

Kolev said that before the union campaign, shift supervisors had been asking the company to improve staffing to no avail. "My manager always said the budget wasn't enough, or found some reason not to hire more people," Kolev said. According to Kolev, that changed in early June.

New employees were hired en masse through group interviews

Briana Adams, who was manager of Compass's Wisconsin Avenue store until June 17, said the new employees who recently joined the store were not hired through the company's normal hiring process, which involves one-on-one interviews with the store manager. Instead, Adams said, new employees were hired en masse through group interviews by a company executive. "They just sent them to wherever was unionizing, because none of the stores that weren't trying to unionize had anyone added to their schedules," Adams said. "I think it's to dilute the union vote, so they can get more no votes than yes votes."

Adams said the Wisconsin Avenue store typically needs only nine or ten employees to operate normally. Adams said she was fired after being asked to discipline an employee who was penalized for discussing the union with coworkers and customers. Adams said that instead of issuing a written warning, she asked her supervisor if she could speak with company lawyers to ensure the discipline would not violate labor law.

Penina Meier-Silverman, a shift supervisor under Adams, said the company began restricting shift supervisors' ability to see who was scheduled for shifts at the Wisconsin Avenue store, and that some new employees showed up without managers or supervisors knowing they were scheduled or training there. Kolev said new employees showed up without knowing what was going on. "I definitely don't need 16 more people on my schedule," Adams said.