Restaurant, Hotel, and Building Service Workers I.U. 640

MINNEAPOLIS - Sandwich workers at nine Minneapolis Jimmy John's locations made history Monday as they filed for the first-ever National Labor Relations Board union election at the national fast food chain.

If a majority of workers vote in favor of unionization, franchise owner Mike Mulligan will be legally bound to negotiate with a bargaining team elected by his employees.

"Since we formed a union 11 days ago, Mike Mulligan has refused to even talk to us. We intend to keep the pressure on management to meet our demands. They may be able to stonewall us for now, but when we win this election, Jimmy Johns will have no choice but to negotiate," said Mike Wilkow, a Jimmy Johns Workers Union member.

Since workers at nine Minneapolis Jimmy John's locations announced the formation of a union and demanded negotiations with franchise management on Sept. 2, the chain has been bombarded with an escalating campaign of actions in 32 states intended to bring management to the bargaining table. The Jimmy Johns Workers Union's demands include sick days, a no-nonsense worker's compensation policy, fair scheduling, livable wages, an end to sexual harassment, and other measures of basic fairness at work.

Franchise owner Mike Mulligan and general manager Rob Mulligan have ignored the union's repeated requests for negotiations. Union members say managers have begun using typical union-busting tactics, such as distributing threatening letters, calling employees into irregular one-on-one meetings, and making concessions to individual workers on demands around wages and hours.

The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is the first fast food union in the nation, and is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.

By Jeff Smith - GRIID, September 6, 2010

Today, 10 members of the local chapter of the IWW and a few supporters stood in the rain outside of the Jimmy John’s restaurant in Eastown today to show support for a new national effort to unionize fast food restaurant chain in the US.

IWW members received primarily positive responses from people walking and driving by the Jimmy John’s location on Wealthy Street near the intersection of Lake Dr and Wealthy.

Despite sending out a Media Release to dozens of local news agencies, the only coverage of the solidarity picket came from Indy media sources, GRIID and a citizen journalist with the Rapidian. WZZM 13 did run a story about the planned picket yesterday, but no commercial news agencies showed up today, despite the obvious tie in to Labor Day.

Still no response from corporate headquarters

MINNEAPOLIS - In the true spirit of Labor Day, supporters of the Jimmy Johns Workers Union in 32 states nationwide will take to the streets in an unprecedented National Week of Action to pressure Minneapolis franchise owner MikLin enterprises to meet with their workers.

In Minneapolis alone, more than 200 union members and supporters are expected to rally at the University of Minnesota for a performance by local hip-hop stars I Self Divine and Guante, followed by a march on two area stores.

The Minneapolis Jimmy Johns Workers Union, the first chapter in the country, is riding high on the momentum of several days of successful demonstrations and pickets in Minneapolis with crowds in the hundreds.

The union says actions will intensify as long as owner Mike Mulligan and General Manager Rob Mulligan refuse to meet with the union. “The Mulligans need to know that we aren't just hard-working employees, but students and parents; real people with real concerns. These are our lives. We're tired of being ignored and degraded at job after low wage job. We're tired of being expendable,” said Jake Foucalt, a union member in Minneapolis. “The pressure will continue to build until we are listened to.”

The national corporate headquarters of Jimmy Johns has yet to respond to the unionization campaign, the first at the expanding sandwich empire. The union effort could have profound implications for other employers in the fast food industry, a sector known for the lowest rate of unionization– and lowest wages– in the United Sates. Only 1.8% of food service workers were represented by a union in 2009, far below the nation-wide figure of 12.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A person working 30 hours a week on the federal minimum wage of $7.25 would make $3260 below the federal poverty line for a family of two. Jimmy Johns pays minimum wage and maintains a corporate policy of discouraging managers from scheduling workers more than 20 hours per week.