UES Game Cafe Owners Refuse To Recognize Union, Call For Election

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Workers calling for a union at a popular board game cafe emphatically do not have the support of their bosses.

Instead of voluntarily recognizing a union organized by workers at Hex & Co, a board game cafe with locations in Manhattan, including the Upper East Side, management has decided to instead petition the National Labor Review Board to hold a union election.

A representative from Workers United said that the decision was "disappointing" and have since launched a public petition of support.

The petition includes a letter to owners Greg May and Jon Freeman, which first thanks the pair for their "contributions that you have made to the NYC gaming community," before listing their concerns and demands.

"For years, however, Hex & Co. staff has had to deal with low wages, poor staffing, and a demoralizing lack of upward mobility," the letter reads. "Despite a broken promise to raise wages, rents are soaring, inflation is high, and Hex & Co. baristas and after school staff still earn the same poverty wages."

The letter states that employees have tried to meet with management before to try and address these concerns, but says they were met with an uncooperative player.

"Why would ownership delay in this way, refusing to recognize workers' good faith effort to work with ownership to improve their workplace?" the letter says.

Patch has reached out to Hex & Co management multiple times and has yet to receive a response.

Workers' demands include a living wage of $22.50 an hour, a transparent path to promotions and adequate staffing to meet the workload.

"Instead of meeting with them as partners in a community, they have been met with an anti-union meeting, misdirects and half-truths," reads the letter. "Instead of voluntarily recognizing the union you have taken actions against those workers, ignored their demand and are now choosing to force them through a months long gauntlet to a federal election."

This will be one of the first union drives since a recent NLRB court decision, referred to as the Cemex Decision, which gave unions a more streamlined process when it comes to getting official status and a leg up in protections during the election cycle.

The burden to petition the NLRB for an election if the union is not voluntarily recognized now lies with management, according to Restaurant Business Online. Previously, workers would petition the NLRB for an election if management declined to recognize the union.

And the decision places more burdens on employees to avoid unfair labor practices leading up to an election, giving the NLRB more power to force workers and bosses to engage in bargaining.

Worker's United — the same group that has unionized 360 Starbucks across the country — says the Hex & Co bargaining unit will include about 75 employees, including baristas, retail workers, bartenders, after school program workers and workers who run some of the games, also known as "dungeon masters."

Across the city, elected officials have already thrown their support behind the workers, including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Congressman Jerry Nadler, Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, State Senator Liz Krueger and City Council Members Carlina Rivera and Julie Menin all signed a letter urging management to voluntarily recognize the Hex & Co union.

The Upper East Side Hex & Co is located at 1462 First Ave., at East 76th Street.