Workers at Iowa City, Coralville Bruegger’s Bagels picket over attempted unionization

Workers at the Iowa City location of Bruegger’s Bagels protested Saturday, trying to get the franchise to recognize “Bruegger’s Workers United,” the first union formed at Bruegger’s nationwide.

“What we really wanted to do with this picket was get community support so that people in the union would feel more comfortable speaking up and showing their faces to management as people who want change,” said Juniper Hollis, a former union worker. Bruegger’s Coralville. location.

About 10 workers from both locations showed up to picket outside Iowa City at 708 S. Riverside Drive, holding signs that read “Honk if you hate union busting” and “Bruegger Workers United.”

“What’s happening is not right,” Hollis said. “It’s not only illegal, it’s also unethical, and it’s something we’re here to fight against.”

Workers at two Bruegger locations in Iowa, one in Coralville and the other in Iowa City, announced their intention to form an independent union on May 29. A few days later, on May 31, the franchise announced that it would close one of these two stores.

The Coralville location was the store that closed its doors, Hollis said. The workers claim that it was retaliation for the announcement of union formation.

“After we announced that we were trying to create a union, they fired the workers at that location,” Hollis said. “Almost all of these workers signed something saying they were pro-union, so it was pretty obvious that this was the reason to terminate all of these positions.”

According to a statement from Bruegger’s Workers United, the union filed unfair labor practice charges against the store’s management.

Kyle Werner is a reporter for the Register. Contact him at kwerner@dmreg.com.

This article originally appeared in the Des Moines Register: Bruegger’s Bagels Workers in Iowa Picket Over Unionization Dispute