Attaboy: ‘You don’t unionise a bar you don’t love’
Staff members at New York cocktail bar Attaboy are attempting to form a union to protect workers and improve the venue’s standards.
Named Attaboy Local 134, the workers’ platform includes demands for self-management, transparency, better benefits, and protections.
The first step is for the bar’s owners to voluntarily recognise the union. If this fails, the next step would involve a workers’ vote, after which it would go to negotiations.
Bartender Chris Hughes says that the owners have acknowledged the group’s request but have not yet made a decision.
Hughes has worked at Attaboy for eight years, and a lot of other long-tenured staff are behind the union drive. “One of the reasons we came around to forming a union is fundamentally because we care about the bar a lot,” he says. “We want our input, ideas and the care that we bring to work to be reflected in the decisions that are made by the owners about the direction of the bar.”
Unionisation in the on-trade isn’t common, with Hughes citing data that less than 4% of bars and restaurants in New York are represented by unions. “There are a lot of complex reasons for that, but one of the results of not having a lot of representation for workers is that there’s a lot of latitude for bosses to just do whatever they want,” he says.
“I think the fact that we have a lot of support within the industry is a testament to the fact that a lot of people feel the same way I do.”
Holding bosses accountable
Hughes says that unsavoury and sometimes illegal behaviour in the industry can go unchecked without platforms to support staff. Mistreated workers usually have only one option: going to court, which is costly and can take a long time. “The other option is to get a new job, cross your fingers, and hope that everything works out,” he says.
He sees the union as a “mechanism for holding bosses accountable”. “We found that just trusting people to do the right thing doesn’t actually pan out,” he says. “This is one way to make sure we’re heard and our concerns are addressed.”
He hopes Attaboy Local 134 will give workers more control over how the bar runs, who gets hired and fired, and how staff get trained. “We’ve seen a lot of the same problems cropping up over and over again, and it seems like a lot of them could have been avoided if there’d been a little bit more discussion about how we run the bar,” he says.
“We’ve had lots of meetings and spent lots of time talking to our bosses, and often it seems like we’re just ignored. They’ll take the time, sit in the meetings and make nice, and then completely disregard everything we’ve ever said.”
Having a formal union would give workers a seat at the table, he believes, and it would improve the quality of Attaboy. He adds: “There’s been a lot of staff churn lately and a lot of managerial oversight that we think can be easily corrected.”
Attaboy opened in 2013 in the former location of Milk & Honey, founded by mixology legend Sasha Petraske.
Bartender Zack Gelnaw-Rubin adds: “I remember Sasha for his respect towards workers, and so I am optimistic that the owners of Attaboy, as heirs of Sasha’s legacy, will honour our request and voluntarily certify our union.”
Setting a precedent
Launching a union drive creates “tension and conflict”, admits Hughes, but the current mood among Attaboy staff is “joyful”. He adds: “People are really excited to see things happening, to see things starting to change. It’s still all up in the air, but it’s very exciting.”
Others in the community and the bar sector have shown their support, which he says has been a real positive. “It’s been really exciting to see people come out and show support and show love for workers organising their workplace,” he says. “It makes us feel like we’re on the right track.”
Attaboy is following in the footsteps of other New York bars, such as Death & Co and Achilles’ Heel, however, neither of their stories ended positively. Ultimately, Death & Co’s union drive failed, with a majority of employees voting against union representation. Meanwhile, Achilles’ Heel successfully launched a union, only to have the business immediately close.
“We understand that it’s not the easiest task in the world. There are a lot of hurdles to organising our industry,” Hughes admits. “But what I see and hear is a lot of excitement and hope that perhaps if we succeed, then another bar could. There may be a greater change within the industry.”
Attaboy Local 134 has set a deadline of Monday 13 April for the owners to voluntarily recognise the union, with a vote to follow shortly after if they choose not to. “We’re hopeful they will voluntarily certify our union,” he says. “There are a lot of reasons for us to come to the table.
“I’m trying to emphasise the fact that you don’t unionise a bar you don’t love or a workplace that you don’t care about. We’re doing this as an act of care. We love this bar, and we want to make sure that it’s as good as it can be, that it lasts for a long time. It’s important to all of us, and we hope that the owners will join us in that.”
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