In New York, workers at two Alamo Drafthouse theaters have voted to unionize. And they did so to fight back against their working conditions, which have pretty much gone down the drain after their jobs were taken [00:00:15] over by private equity. Now, if you're not already familiar, Alamo Drafthouse is a small chain of theaters across the country. They often show older films or art house movies alongside all of the new blockbusters. I love Alamo drafthouses. [00:00:32] They're usually better with the foods, variety and selection. Really great service, just awesome from my experience going to these theaters. But the Pandemic did create a massive problem for the company's business model, [00:00:48] and they ended up filing for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy as a result. Now, Tim League, the co founder of Alamo Drafthouse, sold the majority of the company to two private equity firms. That decision luckily, kept the company afloat, but it came at a cost, [00:01:05] and that cost was really directed toward the workers. So take the conditions at the Brooklyn Alamo Drafthouse as one example. Servers and bartenders say they're stretched thin. Customers complain that their drinks are delayed and their food is cold. [00:01:22] Bridge Squitire, a server at the Brooklyn theater, said the dishwashers are criminally understaffed, leading to a fruit fly infestation in the kitchen. Jordan Baruch, who works in the box office, said that the understaffing [00:01:39] means he has to radio for a manager's permission to use the restroom. The workers state that their management tells them that the Brooklyn Theater is the company's most profitable location, which really leads one to wonder, why exactly are they understaffed then? [00:01:56] They have the means to afford more workers. They should hire more workers. In fact, Nicole Bardas reports that one of the workers here, a bartender, said, we make record profits and we still can't make rent. [00:02:12] This is Jesse Ganachial, who's a bartender who has worked at Alamo for six years. Starting pay at the venue is $10 for tipped workers like servers, and $15 an hour for non-tipped workers like concierges the minimum wage in New York City. [00:02:32] Now, she also says that members she also remembers a time when the company was more worker first and used to host screenings for employees or other events to keep morale high. Now, as a thank you for record sales, [00:02:48] on the opening weekend of Barbenheimer, Alamo, corporate sent workers in Brooklyn a congratulatory email and gifted them each. My God, one half of a free Panera Bread sandwich. [00:03:05] Waz, jump in here. >> Man, first of all, the audience will agree. Not much of a Ryan Gosling fan there, are you? And the disdain with which you said that Barbie hammer? [00:03:21] >> Speaker 1: [LAUGH] No, Barbenheimer.. I actually saw the Barbie film and I liked it. I had some critique, but I overall liked it. I was entertained, are you not entertained? >> Speaker 2: I love that. [00:03:37] I actually still haven't seen the Barbie movie, but I did see Oppenheimer and I did quite enjoy a lot of the left wing discourse of that movie. But yeah, Anna, what else is there to see here? This is the same stuff. This is the dirt bag mentality of that entire industry. [00:03:56] Whatever, I know some people might have friends who work in private equity, whatever, they might be personally good people. But in their capacity as private equity people movers and operators, this is the modus operandi. This is what you do. And workers know the bosses are not just gonna come in and [00:04:14] be like, wow, we just killed it this last quarter. We just killed it this last year. Let's reward the workers for their efforts in making this so, making this come to be no, that's not gonna be the case. They're gonna try to grind you to a pulp unless you make them do something else, [00:04:32] unless you stand up for yourself and try to put it into this. You have to put your foot down. They're not going to do this on their own. I repeat, what makes you good at capitalism is not that you pay people what they deserve, is that you grind them to dust. [00:04:49] You kick them in the head at every single turn and you make them think they should like it. And that's what earns you plaudits. That's what people write books about you for. That's what makes you a god in this system, okay? It's not coming in and treating workers like they're human beings, no. [00:05:10] It's treating them like line items, like cogs in a machine and doing exactly what you see doing at this movie theater is it's no different. And again what I'm heartened by. In times when if you wanna wave your for [00:05:25] the Democratic Party, even when Joe Biden's doing good. His press secretary is coming out and calling people repugnant cuz they might call for a ceasefire or they might call for peace in a bloody war. [00:05:41] In times when that's what your Democratic Party is doing, the only place that there's any hope is the worker militancy across many industries across the country. And I'd be shocked if these workers have not been inspired by the UPS Teamsters, [00:05:57] the UAW workers, the John Deere workers. All of these other groups and groups of workers who have know they're not gonna take it anymore. They're not just gonna make millions upon millions, hundreds of millions of dollars for the bosses and not get their fair share. [00:06:14] >> Speaker 1: Absolutely. And look, I'm actually gonna get to how the workers decided to take action and unionize in just a moment. Before I do, though, I wanna make sure everyone understands just how private equity works. And how private equity has ended up essentially purchasing certain [00:06:32] businesses and then ensuring their bankruptcy and destruction. One of the ways that they do that, and private equity is when they basically represent private investors, right? And these private investors want to invest in businesses or [00:06:47] ventures that are not traded publicly on the stock market. So what they'll do is they'll buy up private businesses and then they want a return on investment just like shareholders would want in a publicly traded company. [00:07:05] And one of the ways that they maximize their profits is by taking out a ton of debt. And they not only pad the executives pockets, but they pay all sorts of dividends to the private investors. But one of the other ways that they do it is by, of course, cutting costs. [00:07:23] And the first thing they look at is, okay, well, how can we cut costs associated with labor? Which is part of the reason why or maybe the main reason why they're dealing with a staffing shortage at these theaters. Now, the workers were like, no, we're not gonna have this. [00:07:39] We're going to take some action. So with nowhere to turn, the employees at the Brooklyn and Manhattan theaters banded together and started a union drive with the United Auto Workers Local 2179. So this was the day before the election in Brooklyn. [00:07:56] The co founder Tim Lee gave an hour long speech to the employees about how he was disappointed with their decision. Here's how one anonymous worker responded, I have been jerked around for two years. I have been cut from my shifts last minute. [00:08:13] I have been asked to be in more than one theater last minute, asked to serve 40-something customers at once, asked to do the job of two or more employees. I'm desperate for some kind of change. [00:08:29] One might argue I should just quit and find a better job. But I believe a better world is possible. One where instead of saying this job sucks, let someone else do it, I'm out. We stay and improve it. So the Brooklyn and Manhattan union drives both succeeded with 74% and [00:08:48] 65% of employees voted to unionize respectively. And they probably won't be the last. The chain's flagship location in Austin, Texas is also currently organizing for a union vote. But unfortunately, Alamo Draft House has yet to state whether or [00:09:07] not they will bargain fairly with their employees. And as we've learned from Starbucks and Amazon, companies can drag out negotiations for a very long time. Which is concerning wise when you think about the upcoming presidential, [00:09:23] Joe Biden definitely has his flaws, but the National Labor Relations Board under his administration has been pretty fantastic. And should he lose his reelection and be replaced with, let's say, a Republican president, maybe even again a President Donald Trump, [00:09:40] the NLRB will be very different. In fact, Trump's NLRB was notoriously awful toward labor and I am not looking forward to that. >> Speaker 2: And that's that's the precarious situation that workers in this [00:09:55] country find themselves. You basically at the whims of whatever direction the political winds are floating as far as getting a federal governmental body to intercede on your behalf. [00:10:11] Otherwise these people get to act with impunity against you and use the built-in advantages that the system has built for them in order to beat you, right? And so if you're not having cuz again, make no mistake, the federal [00:10:28] government steps in on behalf of capital all the time to save their bacon. It happens all the time. We could think of countless examples since the crash of where the federal government stepped in to save private money's bacon. [00:10:48] Every now and again, for a governmental body like the NLRB, which was literally invented to help workers, like that is the point of that governmental body. Workers sometimes need these bodies to step in to help them. [00:11:04] And if they're completely weakened from the inside by an administration that doesn't even see the merit in workers' rights and labor rights, then we're just kind of at their mercy. >> Speaker 1: One of the anecdotes that our good friend Ben Burgess likes to share [00:11:22] in regard to Trump's NLRB had to do with that former Google worker James Damore. James Damore ended up getting fired from Google after he put out a memo responding to efforts to increase the number of female coders within Google. [00:11:39] They couldn't understand why they weren't attracting female coders. And so, you know put out this memo that some in the company found incredibly offensive. Because he said that women have certain characteristics and traits [00:11:55] that are not conducive to the kind of work environment that Google had for coders. Again, people found it offensive and he got fired, right? The right-wing rallied around him arguing know, his free speech should be supported, he shouldn't have been fired. [00:12:12] We support him, we support him, we support him. One of those people was Donald Trump. But when James Damore decided to take this up with the NLRB under Trump's administration. Well, the individuals that were appointed by Donald Trump for [00:12:28] the National Labor Relations Board basically told him to f off. So they didn't do anything for him. >> Classic. >> Speaker 1: And I'm not celebrating that. I'm saying that as a cautionary tale know a potential future Trump administration that would wipe away some of the gains that labor was able to [00:12:45] make as a result of Biden's National Labor Relations Board. So these are the little things that are in the weeds, I admit that you might not think about when it comes to making decisions about who to vote for. But with all the flaws that come with a Biden administration, I do think it's [00:13:02] also important to focus on some of the benefits that we've seen under his watch. The NLRB and also the leadership of Lina Khan in the Federal Trade Commission. She's been doing an excellent job fighting back against monopolies and [00:13:17] other potential mergers and acquisitions. So that's like a broader picture of what we're noticing with the Biden administration. Something to take into account.