Mass firings, wage cuts and open hostility: workers are burnt out but still unionizing

Companies are hiring anti-union consultants and deploying hardball tactics when workers threaten to form a union

Brandi McNease worked at a Chipotle in Augusta, Maine, where she and her co-workers had filed a union election in June 2022, the first location at 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.