Chipotle Workers on How They Won the First Chipotle Union in the United States
Last month, Chipotle workers in Lansing, Michigan, became the first workers at the corporation to unionize. We spoke to three of the Chipotle workers and union activists about how they did it.
Chipotle worker-organizers Harper McNamara, Sam Smith, and Atulya Dora-Laskey in front of the union hall with Teamsters organizer T. J. Kitchen. (Cole Hughes)
On August 25, workers in Lansing, Michigan, won the first successful unionization vote at any Chipotle store in the United States — a victory that could inspire an organizing surge similar to that currently sweeping Starbucks. To discuss their story and its do-it-yourself lessons, Jacobin’s Eric Blanc sat down with three of the worker leaders responsible for the win: eighteen-year-old Sam Smith, nineteen-year-old Harper McNamara, and twenty-three-year-old Atulya Dora-Laskey.
Eric Blanc
Can you describe the day you won the union vote?
Sam Smith
We were pretty anxious, especially Atulya. We had made voting plans with our coworkers ahead of time, to make sure they had rides and knew when the voting was taking place. But a few people changed their voting plans at the last second, so Atulya freaked out and started going through the list of nightmare scenarios we had mapped out where we wouldn’t get enough votes. So that added to our anxiety. I’ve got a picture of us at that moment waiting in the Target parking lot, with Atulya looking like he’s reconsidering his purpose in life.
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