Chipotle Must Pay $240,000 To Employees After They Shut Down Restaurant That Tried To Unionize

Chipotle agreed to offer $240,000 in back pay and forward pay to employees at a location in Augusta, Maine, which was shuttered last year after workers attempted to unionize.

The burrito restaurant chain agreed to the settlement, which will amount to between $5,800 and $21,000 for each affected worker, while continuing to deny all wrongdoing in association with the closure of the location in July. The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint in November asserting that the closure was meant to prevent the unionization efforts, while Chipotle said that the closure was a response to staffing difficulties.

“We settled this case not because we did anything wrong, but because the time, energy and cost to litigate would have far outweighed the settlement agreement,” the firm said in a Monday statement. “We respect our employees’ rights to organize under the National Labor Relations Act.”

Chipotle United remarked in a statement that the company embarked on an “illegal closure of our store and retaliation against our union members.” The settlement will also permit any Chipotle employee impacted by the shuttering of the store to preferentially apply for work at another Chipotle location in the area for the next three months.

“This settlement is a huge win. Chipotle just got put on notice,” the group commented. “Union busting will not be tolerated and there’s no way around it.”

Chipotle United linked the settlement to the recent departure of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who some lawmakers wanted to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee about unionization efforts within the coffee restaurant chain. Nearly 300 Starbucks locations elected to form labor unions over the past two years, while Starbucks office workers recently called for executives to “respect federal labor laws” after they were told to return to physical office spaces at least three times per week.

Beyond the food services sector, other industries have faced pressure from unions in recent months: Southwest Airlines pilots threatened to strike in May over contract negotiations and the nationwide travel meltdown last year, while members of the New York State Nurses Association went on strike at several hospitals in New York City earlier this year and Congress was forced to intervene in deliberations between rail companies and labor unions.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) meanwhile signed measures last week to repeal the state’s right-to-work laws, the first time such statutes have been overturned in several decades. Unions had lost more than 143,000 members since the laws entered into effect in 2012, according to an analysis from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, with some unions losing as much as two-thirds of their membership.

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Chipotle recently introduced a robotic chip machine in southern California after the state passed legislation to create a council with the authority to raise fast food minimum wages to as high as $22 per hour, an increase of over 40% from the $15.50 per hour minimum wages which took effect this year. “We are always exploring opportunities to enhance our employee and guest experience,” Chipotle Chief Technology Officer Curt Garner said last year.